(by Steve Hopkins)
Harimoto fell in the Semifinals, Moregard fell in the Round of 16, and Fan Zhendong lost his opening match – as three of the top players in the World were victims of upsets in the WTT Contender event in Goa this week.
Fan was given a bye in the opening round, but never really got into rhythm in Goa – losing to Korea’s Cho Daeseong 3-2. Cho fell behind 0-2, but then managed 12-10, 11-9, 11-8 games for the comeback win. France’s young Felix Lebrun topped Korea’s Lee Sangsu and then took out Truls Moregard and Jang Woojin before falling to Lin Shidong. Lin Shidong has had an impressive couple of weeks playing in WTT events, and this week, he added a Quarterfinal win over Lin Yun Ju to his list of accomplishments. Shidong then topped Lebrun and will play Liang Jingkun in the Final on Sunday.
The top European players all had trouble early. In addition to Moregard falling, Dang Qiu was upset by Korea’s Jang Woojin. Recent Euro 16 winner Darko Jorgic was upset by Jon Persson – and Persson then lost in the next round to An Jaehyun. The only European player to make the Final 8 was Felix Lebrun.
Tomokazu Harimoto entered as the second seed, but he fell to Liang Jingkun in the Semifinals (a minor upset as the two are close in the rankings). Jingkun also defeated Lin Gaoyuan on his path to the Finals.
The 26 year old Liang Jingkun will face 17 year old Lin Shidong Sunday as one of the oldest Chinese team members faces off against the youngest.
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