(by Steve Hopkins, photo from ITTFworld)
Despite surprises throughout the event, the final story in both the Men’s and Women’s event is that the top seed cruised on the final day.
Harimoto beat Ovtcharov in the Semifinal (flipping the script from a week ago in the first Middle East Hub Event) and then rolled over Ruwen Filus in the Final. Filus was the surprise of the tournament, logging four upsets on his way through the draw. The first two games of the match were 11-9, and Harimoto won both. They traded games after that, but Harimoto had a relatively easy win.
Mima Ito entered the women’s event as the top seed – and she won the first Middle East Hub Event last week as well. In the Final against Feng Tianwei, it was Feng who won the first game 12-10. However, after that, it was all Mima – rolling off four wins in a row for the 4-1 win.
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