Bulgaria Open Recap: Xu Xin Outlasts the Field
(by Steve Hopkins)

Action concluded Sunday at the Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour Asarel Bulgaria Open.  The Men’s final went very much as expected with the higher seeded Xu Xin of China dominating the match over Japan’s Kenta Matsudaira (4-1).  The final result was not surprising, but there were plenty of surprises earlier in the tournament.

As it turns out, Xu Xin as the second overall seed, was the last top seed standing at the Bulgaria Open.  Top seed, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, was eliminated by an unranked Chinese player named Zheng Piefeng.  The third seed, Ma Long, was upset by England’s Liam Pitchford.  And the fourth seed, Tomokazu Harimoto, fell to Japanese teammate Kenta Matsudaira.

The quarterfinals matched Zheng Peifeng (fresh off of his upset of Ovtcharov) against Matsudaira, and Samsonov against Harimoto, and Ma Te against Habesohn, and Xu Xin against Niwa.  The semifinal results were Masudaira over Harimoto (4-2) and Xue Xin over Ma Te (4-0).  And the final was a 4-1 win by Xu Xin.

The Women’s Singles event was an all-China final with Ding Ning defeating Wang Yidi 4-3.  Ning defeated countrymen Liu Gaoyang 4-1 in one semifinal, and Yid defeated Japan’s Hitomi Sato in the other semifinal.  Also of note, Georgina Pota joined four Chinese players and three Japanese players in the final eight.  And Adriana Diaz had a strong opening match before falling to Wang Yidi in the Round of 16.

Xu Xin v. Matsudaira:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjDj-ZZIKjw

Piefeng v. Ovtcharov:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYwfpwap_Ag

Pitchford v. Ma Long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeQf8JCpKiQ