(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
Anders Lind is the last top seed standing, as the Dane outlasted Portugal’s Joao Geraldo 3-1 in their Quarterfinal match today at the WTT Feeder Olomouc in the Czech Republic. Lind will face Martin Allegro, Belgium’s top player, in the Semifinals on Sunday morning. Belgium, who like much of the rest of Europe are gearing up for the Paris Olympics, actually have two players in the Top 4, as Cedric Nuytinck has emerged from the bottom half of the draw. Nuytinck will face China’s Xue Fei in the other Semifinal matchup.
This Feeder event was designed for players outside of the World Top 30, so not every name is recognizable. However, the “big” names all faltered early with France’s Simon Gauzy (World No. 31) losing to fellow Frenchman Lillian Bardet in the Round of 32, Kao Cheng-Jui (World No. 32) falling in the Round of 32 to Sun Zheng, and Kristian Karlsson losing to Xue Fei in the Round of 16. Anders Lind, who entered as the fourth seed, should be heavily favored from this point forward as the World’s No. 37 player faces off against Allegro (No. 76), Nuytinck (No. 104), and Xue (No. 237).
Its not uncommon in tournament to see upsets on the Men’s side and to have the Women’s results end predictably almost by seed – that is not the case this week as the top seven seeds have all been eliminated. Despite starting the tournament with 5 players in the World’s Top 50, the semifinal matchups will feature He Zhuojia (No. 77) versus Ivana Malobabic (No. 94) and Andrea Dragoman (No. 85) versus Chen Yi (No. 57).
Action continues tomorrow with the Semifinal and Final matches.
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