(by Steve Hopkins)

Calderano, Qiu, Franziska, and Aruna are the headliners in Durban this week as the WTT Contender Series opens the New Year in South Africa. Each of those top four seeds has reached the Quarterfinals.  On Saturday, Hugo Calderano will face a 17 year old rising Chinese star, Lin Shidong.  Patrick Franziska will face Sweden’s Anton Kallberg.   Quadri Aruna will face Ukraine’s Yaroslav Zhmudenko.  The final match-up will be Dang Qiu against France’s Simon Gauzy.

In the Women’s draw, Germany’s Nina Mittelham and Xiaona Shan have both advanced.  Each will face a Chinese challenger in the Quarterfinals – Shan will face Qian Tainyi, and Mittleham will face Zhang Rui.  The third Quarterfinal pairing will be Fan Ziqi against Liu Weishan and the final match will be between Taipei’s Chien Tung-Chuan and Dina Meshref of Egypt.

We’ll have more updates as we maneuver towards the Finals on Sunday.

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