(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)

Just a few months ago, a Wang Chuqin versus Fan Zhendong final would have been a premiere match up of No. 1 and No. 2 – likely with the oddsmakers favoring Fan.  But in the Spring, there was a shift atop the rankings, and most recently we’ve seen Fan fall early in a number of tournaments and his championship drought has resulted in a drop to No. 4.  So Fan’s  wins over  No. 11 and Harimoto and No. 6 Calderano are welcome, but the 700 ranking points heading his way for reaching the Final should be enough for him to move back to No. 3 (and if he wins tomorrow’s Final, he’ll have enough points to retake No. 2 in the World Rankings).  For World No. 1 Wang Chuqin, this has been another clean tournament, winning all three of his knock out matches, though he was pushed in his 3-2 win over Matsushima, and he was down (briefly) in his Semifinal 4-2 win over Dang Qiu.  The Final is scheduled for Monday evening.

Liang Jingkun fell in the Quarters.  He never really hit full stride, falling behind to Alexis Lebrun before coming back for a 3-2 win in the Round of 16, and then losing to Hugo Calderano in 2-3 in the Quarters.  Germany had four entrants – with Franziska falling 1-3 to Woojin in the opening round, Boll falling 2-3 to Felix Lebrun in the Round of 16, and Ovtcharov falling to Calderano 2-3 in the Round of 16.  The fourth player, Dang Qiu, was the only one not leaving Chongqing disappointed – he topped USA’s Kanak Jha 3-2, then Jang Woojin 3-1, then Felix Lebrun 3-2, before falling in the Semifinals to World No. 1 Wang Chuqin 2-4.

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