(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)

The WTT Champions Series event in Incheon is picking up steam heading toward the weekend.  There are a lot of great players competing this week in Korea, but that has not lessened the surprises as many of the top seeds are already out.  Felix Lebrun was upset by Korea’s Lee Sang Su in the first round and Japan’s Sora Matsushima eliminated Dan Qiu in their Wednesday match as well.  Most of the other big names managed to reach Thursday unscathed, but many of those players’ runs ended on Thursday with upsets.

Top seed, Tomokazu Harimoto lost 3-1 to Lin Yun-Ju in their Round of 16 match on Thursday. Sora Matsushima continued his great play, sweeping Jorgic 3-0 in their Round of 16 match.  The third Thursday surprise was Xiang Peng who upset Korea’s highest ranked player, Jang Woojin – eliminating one of the local favorites from contention early.  Korea still has two players alive in the draw with An Jaehyun set to face Hugo Calderano on Friday and Lee Sang Su matched up against Anders Lind.

An Jaehyun dealt a blow to American fans with his 3-1 win over Kanak Jha early Thursday.  The match may have been decided in the first game, a marathon where both were tied 15-15 before Jaehyun took a calculated risk with an aggressive step around his backhand corner to his a forehand winner to take the lead – and then a weak forehand by Jha and the game had gone to Jaehyun 17-15.  The next two games were tight throughout, but the players traded the next two games and Jaehyun played a strong fourth game.  Jaehyun wins 3-1.

In Women’s Singles, both USA’s Lily Zhang and Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz fell in their opening round matches on Wednesday.  Both had difficult draws facing higher ranked players.  For Zhang, she was able to put up one tight game, but Korea’s Shin Yubin was too strong in front of her home crowd – winning 3-0.  For Diaz, she faced World No. 6 Hina Hayata and she played three solid games in her losing effort.  And, like the Zhang match, Hayata was a little too strong for Diaz – winning 3-1.

The top seeds are moving along in Women’s Singles with Yidi, Odo, Kuai, and Xingtong all playing well.  Mima Ito and Satsuki Odo are already through to the Quarterfinals.  Most of the Round of 16 will be played on Friday.

Lots of action scheduled for this weekend.

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