(by Steve Hopkins)

Each of the World’s Top Four advanced into the Quarterfinals at the WTT Finals, but only two reached the Semis. World No. 3 Ma Long and World No. 4 Liang Jingkun both fell in their Thursday Quarterfinal matches.

Liang Jingkun had a fast start in today’s second match – an 11-2 absolute domination over Dang Qiu.  But Qiu turned up the intensity in the second game and edged out a 14-12 win to even the score.  The momentum shifted again, as Jingkun pulled ahead in the middle of the third game and logged another easy win at 11-6.  But the final two games went to Qiu – another tight 11-9 win, and an easier final game victory at 11-6.  Germany’s Dang Qiu advances.

The second upset came in the later matches (two singles matches were played today in the morning, then doubles, and then the other two quarterfinal singles matches were played late in the afternoon).  Before today, Ma Long had owned Lin Gaoyuan winning all ten of their previous ten meetings.  Gaoyuan finally that puzzle, with a 3-2 win today.  The two traded wins with Gaoyuan winning the first, third, and fifth games.  Only two of the games were tight – with three of the games ending with lopsided scores.  Lin Gaoyuan wins 3-1 (4, -5, 9, -9, 5).

Quadri Aruna reached the Quarterfinals with a 3-2 upset of Hugo Calderano.  Aruna advanced to face Fan Zhendong – but was unable to keep his run going as today’s match was an uncompetitive 0-3 loss.  Zhendong dominated the match from the start winning at 6, 9, and 4.

The last match of the day was Wang Chuqin versus Tomokazu Harimoto.  The two traded blows through most of two games – but Wang Chuqin won both.  The first game was 10-10 before Chuqin pulled ahead.  The second game was 8-8 before Chuqin won the final three points.  After both of the first two games went his way, Chuqin easily closed out the match with an 11-6 win in the final game.

In Singles action on Friday, Chuqin will face Dang Qiu, and Fan Zhendong will face Lin Gaoyuan in the Semifinals.

In Doubles, Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin advanced to the Semifinals with a win over Hong Kong’s Ho and Wong. The World (singles) No. 1 and No. 2 will face Lin Gaoyuan and Lin Shidong who topped Germany’s Franziska/Ovtcharov team 3-1.   The Lebrun brothers also advanced, winning 3-0 over Singapore’s Pang and Quek.  Their opponents will be Xiang Peng and Yuan Licen – a lesser known Chinese team who upset Japan’s team of Shunsuke Togami and Yukiya Uda 3-2.  Not unlike the Singles, the Semifinals in Doubles is now down to three Chinese teams and a lone European squad.

Semifinal action will resume on Friday – we’ll have more updates soon.

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