(by Steve Hopkins)

Lin Yun-Ju entered the WTT Contender Series event in Almaty Kazakhstan as the top seed, and he has cruised through to the Semifinals.  A tight 3-2 win over Andrej Gacina was followed up with easier 3-1 and 3-0 wins over Oikawa and Pucar.  Lin will face Truls Moregard in the Semifinal on Saturday.  Moregard also faced a tough challenge in the opening round, needing all 5 games to defeate Chuang Chih-Yuan.  Moregard then blanked Patrick Franziska and Mohamed El-Beiali winning both 3-0.

In the other half of the draw, Marcos Freitas has continued his rise, logging three wins, including a 3-0 win over Darko Jorgic.  Freitas will face another young Chinese player, Xiang Peng.  Peng and teammate Liang Yanning have been the story of the tournament thus far, with Yanning defeating Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Ruwen Filus, as Peng topped Duda and Cho Seungmin.  The two faced each other in the Quarterfinals, with Peng winning 3-1.

Lots of quality table tennis on tap this weekend – we’ll have more updates soon.

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