(by Steve Hopkins)
Lin Shidong entered as the top seed and didn’t disappoint as he won both Men’s Singles and Mixed Doubles, a pair of first place finishes. Shidong was down 0-2 to Sathiyan Gnanadekaran in the opening round, but three strong games set him on the right track again. Shidong went on to win 3-1, 3-0, and then 3-2 over Yukiya Uda before winning the Final 4-1 over Wen Ruibo.
In the other half of the draw, it was Lin Gaoyuan as the top seed, but the story was 17 year old Wen Ruibo who upset three Chinese players in a row to reach the Final. A 3-0 win over Yuan Licen, a 3-0 win over Xue Fei, and then a 3-0 win over Lin Gaoyuan. Clearly China has another great player ready to break through as soon as a place comes available on the National Team.
The top seed in Women’s Singles was Japan’s Satsuki Odo and she did advance all the way to the Semifinals. But China was again the story in the Women’s event, with Kuai Man and Qian Tianyi winning the two Semifinals and creating an all-China Final. Ultimately Kuai Man won 4-2. Each of the doubles events went to China as well with Yang/Zhu winning Women’s Doubles, Yuan/Xiang winning Men’s Doubles, and the two Singles winners (Shidong and Kuai) taking the Mixed Doubles title.
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