(by Steve Hopkins)
The WTT Champions Series event is in Incheon Korea this week, and a huge upset is already on the board on the first day. The hero of the first day was Lee Sang Su, a savvy Korean veteran, and the victim was World No. 6 Felix Lebrun.
Lebrun easily won the opening game, but Lee then dominated the next two. That set up an epic battle in the final two games with the fourth tied 10-10 before going to Lebrun, and the fifth tied 8-8 before going to Lee. In the fifth game, Lebrun jumped ahead 4-1 before Lee gained some momentum and slowly caught back up 4-4. Lebrun had the stronger forehand in the deciding game, but Lee was strong on the backhand side, consistent throughout, and creative – with speed changes and some tricky sidespin attacks. Lee Sang Su advanced ahead of his home fans. At 34, playing some of the best table tennis of his career – beating Felix Lebrun here, and taking out Hugo Calderano just a week ago at a different WTT event.
The other early matches were Lin Yun-Ju over Xue Fei, Tomokazu Harimoto over Alvaro Robles, Lin Gaoyuan over Jonathan Groth, Finn Luu over Nicholas Lum, Jang Woojin over Kao Cheng-Jui, and Xiang Peng over Omar Assar. Six matches are scheduled for Wednesday including Jorgic, Qiu, Ovtcharov, Moregard, and Calderano. And on Thursday, American fans will get to see Kanak Jha take on An Jaehyun.
Lots of action on tap this week.
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