(By Steve Hopkins)
World No. 1 Lin Shidong will face Kao Cheng-Jui, just one of many exciting first-round matchups at the WTT Champions Series event in Macao that begins on Tuesday. The second seed, Wang Chuqin will face Sora Matsushima. World No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto will face Dimitrij Ovtcharov, and World No. 4 Hugo Calderano will face An Jaehyun. All four top seeds have solid opponents – and many exciting matches should be on tap throughout the week.
USA’s Kanak Jha will face off against Borussia Dusseldorf Dang Qiu in the opening round. The winner will likely face Hugo Calderano – and whoever emerges from that very competitive quarter of the draw will also need to fight past Patrick Franziska and Quadri Aruna just to get to the Semifinal. Lin Shidong’s fourth of the draw includes Shunsuke Togami and Anders Lind and Darko Jorgic. The third section of the draw includes Benedikt Duda and Harimoto as well as Anton Kallberg and Lee Sang Su. And the final fourth of the draw has a pair of giants in Lin Yun-Ju and Wang Chuqin along with a pair of recent “giant killers” in Simon Gauzy and Alexis Lebrun.
This should be an exciting week in Macao.
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