Incheon, March 30 (IANS) Chinese paddlers dominated the WTT Champions Incheon as all seven players secured their places in the quarterfinals here.
In the men’s singles, world No. 3 and second-seeded Liang Jingkun came from behind to see off Slovenian Darko Jorgic 3-1 (7-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-7), reports Xinhua.
“I had played with Darko Jorgic several times before, so I prepared well for this match. I was not fully mobilized at the start, which led to the loss of the first game. After that I adjusted my mentality, tried to fight point by point and finally sealed the win,” Liang said.
Third seed Ma Long got past South Korean paddler Lim Jong-hoon 3-1, while top-seeded Fan Zhendong also advanced.
In the women’s singles, world No. 1 and top seed Sun Yingsha got the better of Swedish paddler Linda Bergstrom 11-3, 11-3, 9-11, 13-11 to cruise into the quarterfinals. She will face No. 5 seed Hina Hayata from Japan on Saturday.
Sun admitted her movement at the beginning was quite good, but with the opponent’s changing of tactics from the third game, she was too hasty in dealing with some crucial points. In the last game, she calmed herself down to seal the victory.
In another match, third-seeded Wang Yidi beat Romanian Elizabeta Samara 11-4, 10-12, 13-11, 11-2, and will take on Austrian paddler Sofia Polcanova in the quarterfinals.
In the clash with Japan’s Miwa Harimoto, world No. 4 Chen Meng sealed a comfortable 11-5, 11-7, 11-8 victory, while second-seeded Wang Manyu bested Chinese Taipei player Cheng I-Ching 11-7, 12-10, 11-6.
As the first WTT Champions Series event on the 2024 calendar, world’s top players gathered in Incheon to battle for a prize pool of 300,000 US dollars, while the champions will also earn 1,000 ITTF world ranking points each.
