(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
The top players in the world converged on Hong Kong this week with four emerging to play on the final day of the WTT Finals. World No. 1 Wang Chuqin had a strong showing against Alexis Lebrun, winning 4-1 to be the first to reach the Semifinals. Truls Moregard came from down 0-2 against Lin Yun-Ju to win 4-2 and punch his ticket to face Chuqin in the Semis.
Lin Shidong won his second match 4-0 to advance. He may have had the toughest opening round match (against Liang Jingkun), and his second round match-up was against another Chinese teammate, Xiang Peng. But Shidong has been sharp, especially in the second round where he won those games at 3, 7, 5, and 3. Tomokazu Harimoto is the Semifinalist who has faced the most pressure thus far. Harimoto lost the first game in both of his matches, outlasting Simon Gauzy 4-2 in the opening round, and then defeating Felix Lebrun 11-9 in the final game of a 4-3 win. Harimoto will face Shidong in the Semifinals on Sunday.
Women’s Singles has already finished their Semifinals, and it will be Kuai Man and Wang Manyu in the Final on Sunday. Kuai Man won the first game and the third game – applying great pressure on World No. 1 Sun Yingsha. Yingsha tied the match twice but appeared to begin to struggle towards the end of the second game – moving slowly and after winning the game applied ice to her left ankle during the break. When the fifth game began the first three points went to Kuai and a timeout was called. During the timeout, Yingsha against went to the side for care to the ankle. Kuai Man won the game easily with her opponent struggling to move. After the 11-3 win, Sun Yingsha retired – surrendering the final game to Kuai Man. Kuai Man never trailed in the match and was up 3-2 win the injury withdrawal occurred.
A few hours later after treatment, Sun Yingsha did play in the Mixed Doubles Final. She and Wang Chuqin (World No. 1 paired with World No. 1) were the top seeds. However, the story is the pair from the Korea Republic, Lim Jonghoon and Shin Yubin. They defeated Lin Shidong and Kuai Man in the Semifinals 3-1 and then beat Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha 3-0 in the Final. They are the first Korean players to win any title at the WTT Finals.
The action continues on Sunday with the Singles Finals.
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