(by Steve Hopkins)
Americans had a strong showing at the Singapore Smash, with runs to the Final 16 in both Men’s and Women’s Singles. Kanak Jha secured a great win over Sweden’s Truls Moregard (World No. 7) to reach the Round of 16, but fell to Germany’s Dang Qiu (World No. 10) on Thursday. On the same table, in back to back matches, Lily Zhang fell to Japan’s Hina Hayata (World No. 5).
The biggest table tennis stage of the year thus far, with nearly all of the top ranked players present, and Americans have featured prominently in the story line in both Men’s and Women’s Singles events. And beyond the solid performance of Jha and Zhang in their respective events, there was also tiered successes for American players elsewhere in the draw. For the Men, Jinbao Ma had a lead in the qualifiers, narrowly falling to Manav Thakkar (Thakkar did reach the Main Draw). And on the Women’s side, Sally Moyland was brilliant in the qualifiers, and once she reached the draw, her 2-3 loss to Chien Tung-Chuan of Taipei means this 17 year old American is close to a breakthrough. USA’s other player who made the Main Draw was Amy Wang – who fell to familiar foe, Adriana Diaz. Solid results for TeamUSA.
There’s still a lot of action to cover in Singapore as the Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Finals proceed over the next few days.
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