Wen Ruibo knocked Wang Chuqin out of WTT Champions Frankfurt in straight games on Thursday, as Benedikt Duda beat the Montpellier champion Jang Woojin and Hana Goda and Satsuki Odo set up a women's quarter-final.
Wen, 19 and ranked 14th, beat his China teammate, the fourth seed, 11-7, 11-8, 11-6 in 23 minutes 37 seconds to reach the quarter-finals. Wang, 26, was the world No 1 for much of the year before an injury at the end of September kept him out of China Smash, the Asian Championships and WTT Champions Montpellier. This was only his second singles match back.
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Wen ends Wang's comeback
Wang had beaten Denmark's Anders Lind in straight games on Tuesday, but even then he trailed 5-1 and wasted game points, and he said afterwards that he was still feeling his way back. Against Wen he could not win a game. Wen, who NetEase described as the more proactive player throughout, took the first game 11-7 and the second 11-8, and closed out the match from 10-6 in the third. Neither player called a timeout.
Five weeks without a match is a long time at this level, and against a teammate who knows his game well there was little time to find his rhythm. The question now is how quickly he gets back to match sharpness, with the Mixed Team World Cup and the WTT Finals still to come before the end of the year.
Wen dropped 14 points in his first-round win over South Korea's An Jaehyun on Wednesday and has not lost a game in Frankfurt. He plays Taiwan's Lin Yun-Ju, the fifth seed, or China's Zhou Qihao in the quarter-finals on Saturday.
Duda beats the Montpellier champion
Jang, who came from 3-1 down to beat Patrick Franziska in the Montpellier final on Sunday and rose to No 8 in the world, won the first game 11-3. Duda, 32, a home wildcard ranked 39th, then won three games in a row, 11-3, 11-8, 11-4.
"Jang Woojin was definitely tired, I could tell that," Duda told tischtennis.de. He said Montpellier had been a monster of a tournament and that he had come to Frankfurt relatively fresh after a block of training.
Franziska, 34, also won, beating China's Xiang Peng 11-4, 4-11, 13-11, 11-4. He said he arrived with plenty of confidence and knew in the tight third game that he still had the power to turn it round. Franziska and Duda now meet in the last 16 on Friday evening.
An all-German match and the longest of the day
Dang Qiu, last year's runner-up and the eighth seed, beat Dimitrij Ovtcharov 11-6, 11-9, 11-9 in 21 minutes 23 seconds in the first all-German men's match of the tournament. Ovtcharov, 38 and a former world No 1, is the first of the five German men to go out. Qiu meets Tomokazu Harimoto, the second seed, or Lim Jonghoon in the quarter-finals.
Hugo Calderano, the sixth seed, needed 52 minutes 26 seconds, the longest match of the day, to beat Liang Jingkun 7-11, 13-11, 15-13, 9-11, 11-9. Both players called a timeout. "It was a good, hard match," the Brazilian told tischtennis.de, adding that Liang always came back and fought back after his months away. Calderano plays Germany's Wim Verdonschot on Friday.
Goda and Odo meet for a semi-final place
Egypt's Goda, 18 and ranked 23rd, came through the women's longest match, 40 minutes 23 seconds, against Poland's Natalia Bajor. Bajor, in the draw in place of Sun Yingsha, took the first game 11-9 and levelled at 2-2 by winning the fourth 11-7, but Goda won the decider 11-7.
Odo, 22 and the world No 11, lost the first game 11-6 to Romania's Bernadette Szőcs and then won three in a row, each 11-4. The two meet in the quarter-finals on Saturday, which means an African or a Japanese player will be in the semi-finals.
Kuai and Chen Yi start quickly
Kuai Man, the fourth seed, played the shortest match of the day, beating Amy Wang of the US 11-8, 11-2, 11-3 in 14 minutes 21 seconds. She lost the Montpellier final to Sun Yingsha on Sunday and plays Germany's Nina Mittelham on Friday.
Chen Yi, the Asian champion, beat Josi Neumann, the 16-year-old German wildcard, 11-7, 11-3, 11-5. Neumann was level at 6-6 in the first game. "It was a lot of fun to play here," she said afterwards. Chen meets Ukraine's Margaryta Pesotska.
South Korea's Oh Junsung, 20, beat Sweden's Kristian Karlsson 11-5, 11-7, 11-6 and plays Japan's Shunsuke Togami next.
Matsushima holds off Pucar
Sora Matsushima, the world No 1 and top seed, closed the day by beating Croatia's Tomislav Pucar 11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5 in 22 minutes. The 19-year-old led 10-3 in the fourth game and Pucar saved two match points before Matsushima finished it. A week after losing in the last 16 in Montpellier, he is in the quarter-finals, where he meets Franziska or Duda.
Results in full
- Benedikt Duda (GER) bt Jang Woojin (KOR) 3-11, 11-3, 11-8, 11-4
- Kuai Man (CHN) bt Amy Wang (USA) 11-8, 11-2, 11-3
- Hugo Calderano (BRA) bt Liang Jingkun (CHN) 7-11, 13-11, 15-13, 9-11, 11-9
- Patrick Franziska (GER) bt Xiang Peng (CHN) 11-4, 4-11, 13-11, 11-4
- Oh Junsung (KOR) bt Kristian Karlsson (SWE) 11-5, 11-7, 11-6
- Chen Yi (CHN) bt Josi Neumann (GER) 11-7, 11-3, 11-5
- Wen Ruibo (CHN) bt Wang Chuqin (CHN) 11-7, 11-8, 11-6
- Hana Goda (EGY) bt Natalia Bajor (POL) 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 11-7
- Dang Qiu (GER) bt Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER) 11-6, 11-9, 11-9
- Satsuki Odo (JPN) bt Bernadette Szőcs (ROU) 6-11, 11-4, 11-4, 11-4
- Sora Matsushima (JPN) bt Tomislav Pucar (CRO) 11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5
Day four
The last 16 finishes on Friday. Miwa Harimoto, the women's second seed, plays South Korea's Joo Cheonhui at midday UK time, followed by Lin Yun-Ju against Zhou Qihao, Chen Xingtong against Brazil's Bruna Takahashi, Tomokazu Harimoto against Lim, Hina Hayata against Annett Kaufmann and Calderano against Verdonschot.
The evening session starts at 5.30pm with Han Ying against Sabine Winter, which guarantees Germany a woman in the quarter-finals, then Oh against Togami, Mittelham against Kuai, Franziska against Duda and Pesotska against Chen Yi. Times are approximate. Read our day three preview and day two review.
