(by Steve Hopkins)

The WTT Men’s Finals is set to start in Doha, Qatar on Wednesday.  At the end of 2022, there were a series of major championships that fully wrapped up that tour season before the start of 2023.  The schedule is a little different this year with the WTT Finals starting on January 3rd – effectively ending 2023 in 2024 (like Americans do with football bowl games).  The WTT Finals Men Doha 2023 will feature the top 16 ranked men and the top 8 ranked men’s doubles teams in an event with $340,000 in prize money.

The top four seeds will all be Chinese this year, with Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, Wang Chuqin, and Liang Jingkun atop the rankings.  But this has been a year with lots of fluidity outside of the Top 3, with non-Chinese players making deep runs in major events.  From the bottom up, we’ll see Quadri Aruna (seeded 16), Anton Kallberg, Darko Jorgic, Dang Qiu, Ovtcharov, Harimoto, Woojin, Shidong, Lebrun, Gaoyuan, Yun-Ju, and Calderano (seeded 5th).  Every player in the draw has had at least one big win over a Top 5 player – so anything can happen.

What’s at stake?  We can expect to see most of these players at the Olympics in 2024, but consider this – only the top two players from each country will be allowed to compete in Olympic Singles.  Will Fan Zhendong be China’s top player (this event could determine whether he is World No.1 or World No.2 enterinbg 2024).  As importantly, Wang Chuqin is within striking distance of World No. 1, but he also has Ma Long (who has won the last two Olympic Singles titles) nipping at his heels.

Felix Lebrun has emerged as France’s top player by ranking, but he’s young and keeping that position will require consistency.  Sweden has two players just a few ranking points apart (Anton Kallberg at 1226 and Moregard at 1050),  but every point matters for the Swedes with Mattias Falck at 1000 points and Kristian Karlsson at 535  – one good tournament by any of those four players could give them a major advantage in playing Singles for Sweden in Paris.  Two Germans, Ovtcharov and Qiu, are well ahead of their teammates right now, but like Sweden, one great tournament by Franziska or Duda or Filus could significantly shift the balance for Germany.

Lots of great play on top for later this week.

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