(by Steve Hopkins, photo by WTT)

The WTT Star Contender was the first event of 2025 on the WTT Tour calendar.  Tomokazu Harimoto, Dang Qiu, and Patrick Franziska (World Nos. 3, 9, and 10, respectively) were the top three seeds, but Danish player Jonathan Groth (World No. 25) was the biggest surprise.

For Harimoto’s part, he breezed through the tournament winning 3-0, 3-1, 3-0, and 3-0 to reach the Final.  Second seeded Dang Qiu logged a pair of 3-1 wins over young Chinese players before falling 2-3 to Groth in the Quarterfinals.  Patrick Franziska fell victim to an early upset, losing to a qualifier from Korea named Park Gang-hyeon.  Park put together a nice run that included three wins before falling to Quadri Aruna in the Quarterfinals.  Aruna then faced off against Harimoto in one Semifinal.

Japan’s 21 year old lefty Hiroto Shinozuka made a surprise run to the Semifinals.  Shinozuka beat Kristian Karlsson, Darko Jorgic, and Wong Chun Ting in consecutive matches.   However, the run ended there, as Groth won their Semifinal 3-0.

The Final between Harimoto and Groth was closer than the scores.  Harimoto won the first game 11-9, won the second game 13-11, and won the third 11-9, before dominating the final game 11-4.  Harimoto had to work hard for the victory, but like much of the other scores throughout Harimoto’s tournament, the scoreboard will show a dominant win.

In Women’s Singles, each Semifinal pitted China against Japan.  Japan’s Miyuu Kihara beat China’s Chen Yi 3-1 in one Semifinal, and China’s Kuai Man topped Japan’s Miyu Nagasaki 3-0 in the other.  Kuai Man continued her momentum in the Final with a 4-0 win over Kihara.  China won Men’s Doubles with Xu and Xiang narrowly defeating Harimoto and Matsushima 3-2.  Japan took the other two doubles events with Yokoi and Odo winning Women’s Doubles, and Miwa Harimoto and Sora Matsushima winning Mixed Doubles.

The next WTT Tour stop is in Oman with the WTT Contender Muscat with qualification rounds starting this weekend and the finishing up with the Finals scheduled for next Friday.

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