(by Steve Hopkins)
Early action upsets are the main storyline at the Singapore Smash. As the second Day has come to a close, we are only halfway through the Round of 32, but already we have seen three of the World’s Top 4 players fall.
World No. 4 Lin Gaoyuan was the first to fall, lowing 1-3 to Korea’s Lee Sang Su in their Round of 64 matchup on Monday. All four games were tight, but Lee found a way to pull away and finish strong in key spots. Lin Shidong had a surprisingly easy time with Fan Zhendong in their mid-day Tuesday match. Fan only scored 8 total points in the first two games, and was unable to mount a serious comeback as the two traded games. Shidong moves on to face Timo Boll in the Round of 16.
Ma Long also fell on Tuesday, winning the first and third games over Patrick Franziska easily, but then watching the German mount a comeback for a 3-2 win. Quadri Aruna and Hugo Calderano are both out as well. Calderano fell to Ch Daeseong 3-1, and Aruna lost to hot qualifier Ovidiu Ionescu 3-0.
There is still another day of Round 32 action (the bottom half of the draw has not yet played), but at this point Germany already has 3 players through to the Final 16 (and Dang Qiu will be favored in his match on Wednesday). With three of those upsets affecting top Chinese players, there are only three Chinese players left in the draw. Lots of action on tap as the week progresses. A few quick notes from the Women’s Draw. Both Americans fell in their Round of 64 matches. Lily Zhang lost 1-3 to Miwa Harimoto. Amy Wang fell 3-0 to Spain’s Maria Xiao. Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz advanced 3-2 over Czech Republic’s Hana Matelova.
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