(by Steve Hopkins)

Each of the World’s Top Four advanced into the Quarterfinals on Wednesday at the WTT Finals Men Doha.  Fan Zhendong dropped the first game to Darko Jorgic and then had to fight back wo win 3-2 (in a match that included a 19-17 fourth game).  Second seeded Wang Chuqin toped Felix Lebrun 3-1, third seeded Ma Long was the only player to win his first round match 3-0 (over Jang Woojin), and fourth seek Liang Jingkun defeated Lin Yun-Ju 3-1.

Zhendong will face Quadri Aruna – Aruna upset Hugo Calderano 3-2.  Ma Long will face Lin Gaoyuan – Gaoyuan topped Kallberg 3-1.  Dang Qiu upset Lin Shidong 3-2 to advance to face Liang Jingkun.  And Tomokazu Harimoto defeated Ovtcharov 3-2 and will face Wang Chuqin.

Of the six Chinese entries, five advanced.  Europe had four entries, and only Dang Qiu advanced.  Harimoto was one of three non-Chinese players in the draw (and the only one to advance).  And the two outliers were Brazil’s Hugo Calderano and Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna – who faced each other with Aruna coming out on top.  Chinese players will be fovored in all four match-ups tomorrow – something that is expected as they hold positions 1-4 in the World Rankings.

Lots of quality table tennis on tap this week – we’ll have more updates soon.

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