(by Steve Hopkins)
USA’s Kanak Jha was among those eliminated in the second day of action at the WTT Champions Series event in Chongqing, China. The WTT Champions Series is the best of the best, so there are no easy matches – but Jha had an especially daunting task in facing World No. 6 Felix Lebrun in their opening round match. Felix was hot early, winning the first game 11-3, and Jha never really got into the match as he faced deficits early in both remaining games. Felix Lebrun advanced with the 3-0 win, and will face Yukiya Uda in the Round of 16 tomorrow.
The other Wednesday matches included Lin Yun-Ju with a 3-0 win over Jang Woojin, a comeback win by Anton Kallberg to eliminate Chen Yuanyu 3-2, a solid 3-1 win by Truls Moregard over Jonathan Groth, and 3-0 wins by both Wang Chuqin and Dang Qiu.
There is still another day of first round action to come, but some of the matchups in the Round of 16 look to be epic. Lin Shidong will face a hot An Jaehyun. Lin Yun-Ju will face Patrick Franziska for the sixth time in a tour event (Yun-Ju has won 3 of the previous 5 meetings). Felix Lebrun will match quickness with Japan’s Yukiya Uda. Anton Kallberg and Tomokazu Harimoto who are both known for shot-making ability will go toe-to-toe. Truls Moregard’s creativity will be showcased against Dan Qiu’s consistency. And there will be a matchup between Asian Cup winner Wang Chuqin and Europe 16 Cup winner Alexis Lebrun. *The other matchups still to be decided include a likely Gaoyuan v. Jingkun match and potentially Calderano versus Ovtcharov (provided Lee Sang Su or Hiroto Shinozuka don’t pull an upset).
Lots of quality table tennis on tap all week long – we’ll have more updates soon.
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