(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTFWorld)
It was a Chinese sweep in Doha, as young Chinese players logged wins in every event at the WTT Feeder Doha 2023 event. The Feeder events are for players not at the top of the World Rankings (often outside of the World Top 20) – so its a mix of established players who are regularly in this ranking band, and younger players who are rising in the World Rankings. For China, where their top players often dominate the top of the rankings, it is tough for younger players to accumulate ranking points. This event highlighted the quality of many of their young players – who are likely performing well above their respective rankings.
In Men’s Singles, World No. 24 Omar Assar and World No. 25 Lee Sangsu were the top two seeds. However, it was 21 year old Chinese player (and World No. 126) Xu Yingbin who dominated the event. Xu topped Redzimiski 3-0 in the opening round, and then ran off consecutive upset wins over Korea’s Jaehyun An (3-0), China’s Lin Shidong (3-2), China’s Xiang Peng (3-2), Korea’s Seungmin Cho (3-1), and then China’s Zhou Kai in the Final (3-0). The other Finalist, Zhou Kai, took out top-seeded Omar Assar, Zhou Qihao, and Benedikt Duda on his way to the Finals.
The domination in the Women’s Singles event was even more pronounced, where 7 Chinese players reached the Final 8 (the eighth player was top seed Doo Hoi Kem). In the Women’s event, no Chinese player lost to a non-Chinese player – and the ultimate winner was He Zhuojia, 24 year old World No. 58. Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles, and Mixed Doubles all went to Chinese pairs to complete the sweep.
The next WTT event on the calendar is in Amman, Jordan next week.
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