(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)

Forty thousand dollars and 1,500 ranking points are waiting for the first place finisher at this year’s WTT Finals in Kitakyusha, Japan.  Action begins on Wednesday and will finish next Sunday.

Those ranking points could make a huge difference at the top of the ITTF Rankings as fast-rising second ranked Lin Shidong is only 1050 behind Wang Chuqin.  This will be the first time this year that the top ranking spot is actually at risk, as Chuqin has had a comfortable lead for much of this year.

Nearly every top player will be present, but notable exceptions are Ma Long (who has retired but is still No. 8 in the World) and Olympic Champion Fan Zhendong who has been nursing a shoulder injury through the Fall.  After Chuqin and Shidong, the rest of the top 10 seeds will be Felix Lebrun, Liang Jingkun, Hugo Calderano, Tomokazu Harimoto, Lin Gaoyuan, Truls Moregard, Patrick Franziska, and Dang Qiu.  On the Women’s side, all of the Top 16 are present except for Chen Meng (No. 4).   China will have the top three seeds, and Japan and China will combine for 8 of the Top 10 seeds.

There are no easy matches at the WTT Finals – Wang Chuqin will face Patrick Franziska in the opening round, and the winner will face either Anton Kallberg or Truls Moregard (as the two Swedes face each other in their opening match).  The other four in that half of the bracket are Felix Lebrun, Benedikt Duda, Darko Jorgic, and Lin Gaoyuan.  In the bottom half of the draw, Lin Shidong will open against Alexis Lebrun and the winner will face either Lin Yun-Ju or Dang Qiu.  And the other four in the bottom half of the draw are Jang Woojin, Hugo Calderano, Tomokazu Harimoto, and Liang Jingkun.

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