(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
Four players are left in the star-studded draw at the WTT Star Contender Series event in Doha, Qatar – but not all of the top seeds made it to the Semifinals. Fan Zhendong entered as the top seed, but he had some struggles in each round – winning 3-1 over Patrick Franziska and 3-1 over Lim Jonghoon before falling 2-3 to Lin Shidong in the Quarters. Shidong may have had a tougher path in that quarter of the draw, topping Anders Lind 3-0 and Darko Jorgic 3-1 before besting the World’s top player. Shidong will now face World No. 4 Liang Jingkun in Saturdays Semifinal. Jingkun defeated Lin Yun-Ju 3-2 in his Quarterfinal match-up.
The big upset in the bottom half of the draw was Lin Gaoyuan again handling Ma Long 3-1 in their Quarterfinal match. Gaoyuan will now face World No. 2 Wang Chuqin in the Semifinal on Saturday. Many strong players were present and Moregard, Qiu, Calderano, Pucar, Togami, Matsushima, and Woojin all also reached the Round of 16. Perhaps more disappointment with those who were upset a round or two earlier than expected – like Freitas who fell to Togami, Harimoto who fell to Matsushima, Kallberg who fell to Tomislav Pucar, Boll who fell to Duda, Alexis Lebrun who lost to Franziska, and Calderano who fell to Dang Qiu.
Women’s Singles often lacks the upsets we find in Men’s Singles draws – but there was one upset of note this week in Doha as Qian Tianyi topped World No. 2 Wang Yidi 3-0 to reach the Semifinals. World No. 7 Yidi now joins World 1, 2, and 4 in the Semifinals. Sun Yingsha will face Wang Manyu, and Chen Meng will face Qian Tianyi on Saturday.
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