The main draw for the 2016 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open begins today, 25 March 2016, in Doha, Qatar, after seeing world class athletes fighting to join the top 16 seeds in the tournament over the past two days of qualifications. With the commencement of the main draw in Doha, China’s XU Xin will look to create history by claiming an unprecedented fourth Qatar Open gold. XU will have to fend off the challenges posed by his teammates, MA Long, FAN Zhendong and ZHANG Jike, who will all be eager after the title to prove themselves in the lead up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The world number three XU will be on his way to set up a meeting with Jun MIZUTANI (JPN), who have had six match points against him at the Kuwait Open last week, only to lose eventually by a two-point margin in a full distanced duel. Other strong contenders for the men’s singles title will include world number five Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER), and the defending champion Vladimir SAMSONOV (BLR) who will be aiming to claim a record 27th ITTF World Tour. With grand slam champion LI Xiaoxia pulling out from the Qatar Open due to a relapse of her injuries after claiming the title in Kuwait, the top three seeds, China’s LIU Shiwen, DING Ning, and ZHU Yuling will be the hot favorites for the women’s singles crown in Doha. They will face the challenges from Japanese trio of Kasumi ISHIKAWA, Ai FUKUHARA and Mima ITO who have enjoyed great success on the World Tour in 2015. The Chinese’s biggest threat will be Singaporean lead player, and 2010 World Champion FENG Tianwei, who has a good record of defeating the Chinese. The qualification stage, that was run by a knockout system, saw many upsets in the two days, with top players being challenged by lower ranked athletes in the world. Women’s defending champion and world number 23, Romania’s Elizabeta SAMARA suffered a surprise defeat in the hands of France’s defender LI Xue to make an early exit from the tournament, and thus ending Romania’s last dash of hope for the Qatar Open. Hong Kong’s JIANG Huajun and DOO Hoi Kem were upset by Poland’s Kinga STEFANSKA and Singapore’s ZENG Jian respectively, leaving only LEE Ho Ching to join colleague TIE Yana in the women’s singles main draw. World ranked number 241, Kazakhstan’s Kirill GERASSIMENKO stole the spotlight of the day two when he defeated Japan’s Yuya OSHIMA, world number 20 in the second day of the qualifications stage in a thrilling seven-games match. The 19-year-old, however, failed to continue his feat against HO Kwan Kit (HKG) in the last round of knockout to the main draw. Japan’s Maharu YOSHIMURA nearly suffered the same fate as teammate OSHIMA, in his last qualifications match against Croatia’s Frane KOJIC, the Japanese star was trailing zero games to three, but was able to recover in time to come back four games to win the decider 12-10 on his way to the main draw. The main draw of the 2016 ITTF World Tour will run from today, 25 March, with the final matches happening on 27 March 2016. Quick Links: |