(by Steve Hopkins)

Dimitrij Ovtcharov had a tough opening match, scoring a tough 3-2 win over Joao Monteiro.  Ovtcharov then downed Chen Chien-An 3-1 to advance to the Quarternfinals.  Ovtcharov will face Simon Gauzy, who won both of his early matches handily.

Top seeded Hugo Calderano fell to Kang Dongsoo in the Round of 16.  Dang upset both Killian Ort and Hugo Calderano in successive matches.  He will face Tiago Apolonia who has also scored two upsets in a row – defeating Japan’s Morizono and Korea’s Lim Jonghoon.  Liam Pitchford fell in his first round match to Japan’s Ryoichi Yoshiyama.  Yoshiyama then topped Jonathan Groth to reach the Quarterfinals.  Yoshiyama will face Dan Qiu.  The final pairing is between two big names, Koki Niwa and Anton Kallberg.  However, neither Kallberg nor Niwa was expected to advance by seed.  Niwa benefitted from Kanak Jha falling in the Round of 32 (a 3-1 loss to Horacio Cifuentes).  Kallberg topped Mattias Falck 3-2 in the Round of 16.

In Women’s Singles, Top Seeded Adriana Diaz will face Miyu Nagasaki in on Quarterfinal.  USA’s Lily Zhang has yet to lose a game, winning 3-0 and 3-0 on her way to the Quarterfinals – she will face Barzil’s Bruna Takahashi.  Second seeded Nina Mittelham has advanced as well – she will face Fu Yu.  Su Pei-Ling of Taipei will face Turkey’s Sibel Altinkaya in the final  Quarterfinal pairing.

Quarterfinals are set to begin on Saturday afternoon.

Lots of action on tap for the weekend – and more daily all week long.

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