(by Steve Hopkins)

The top two seeds met in the Final of the WTT Star Contender Event held this week in Goa, India.  Top seeded Hugo Calderano won each of the first two games 11-9, before dropping the next four games to Felix Lebrun.  Lebrun’s four wins included two tight games, a 13-11 win in the third and a 15-13 win in the fifth game.  The other two Lebrun wins were lopsided – including an 11-0 domination in the fourth the ultimately tied the match score 2-2 (and laid the path for the 4-2 win for Felix Lebrun).

Because of how the continental point system works, Calderano will often have a slight advantage when comparing World Rankings over his contemporaries in Europe and Asia – so this match-up between World No. 8 and World No. 6 was more of a coin flip than an upset.  To date, the players have only played each other twice – and Felix has won both times.

The other Semifinalists each had a less likely path to that tier.  Dimitrij Ovtcharov needed a 3-2 win over Dang Qiu in the Quarters (a slight upset) and Patrick Franzisca managed an upset win over Darko Jorgic in the Round of 16.  Its a good sign for Germany to have two players in the Final Four – but Ovtcharov fell to Calderano 1-3, and Franzisca fell to Felix Lebrun 1-3.

Cheng I-Ching won the Women’s Singles event wih a 4-0 win over Nina Mittelham, Lim Jonghoon and An Jaehyun took the Men’s Doubles title over Franziska/Qiu, Jeon Jihee and Shin Yubin won Women’s Doubles, and the Mixed Doubles title went to Shin Yubin and Lim Jonghoon.

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