WTT Champions Montpellier day three preview: Miwa Harimoto and Calderano start as the last 16 begins

Day three of WTT Champions Montpellier finishes the first round and starts the last 16. Six first-round matches are played in the afternoon, with Miwa Harimoto, the world No 3, and Hugo Calderano, the sixth seed, both starting their tournaments, before five last-16 matches in the evening session.

In the evening the top seed, Sora Matsushima, and the defending champion, Truls Moregard, return, and China's Chen Xingtong and Wang Yidi play for places in the same quarter-final. Play starts at 11am UK time, midday in Montpellier, and the evening session begins at 5.30pm.

The big matches

Wen Ruibo v Liang Jingkun (11am UK). Wen, 19, is ranked 14th and seeded 13th, and reached the semi-finals of the Asian Championships last week before losing 3-0 to Tomokazu Harimoto. Liang, 30, has fallen to 39th in the world. The winner meets Simon Gauzy, who knocked Harimoto out on Wednesday, in the last 16 on Friday.

Miwa Harimoto v Bruna Takahashi (12.45pm UK). Harimoto, 18 and the third seed, has won the last three WTT Champions events and is chasing a fourth in a row. She lost the Asian Championships final to Chen Yi on Sunday. Takahashi, 26, is ranked 32nd. The winner plays Lily Zhang or Yangzi Liu on Friday.

Hiroto Shinozuka v Hugo Calderano (1.20pm UK). Calderano, the world No 7, arrives from Lima, where he won the Americas Championships last week, beating his Brazilian teammate Guilherme Teodoro 4-1 in the final. Shinozuka, 22, is ranked 20th. The winner meets Xiang Peng or Dimitrij Ovtcharov.

Truls Moregard v Shunsuke Togami (5.30pm UK). Moregard, the world No 4 and fourth seed, beat France's Thibault Poret in straight games on Tuesday, though he reached for his shoulder during the third game. Togami, 25 and ranked 15th, beat Croatia's Tomislav Pucar in four games. The winner plays Lin Shidong or An Jaehyun in the quarter-finals.

China's women in the last 16

Chen Xingtong, the world No 7 and seventh seed, plays Germany's Annett Kaufmann at 6.05pm. Kaufmann, 20 and ranked 35th, came from two games to one down to beat Japan's Satsuki Odo, the world No 13, on Wednesday. Chen beat Ukraine's Margaryta Pesotska in straight games.

Wang Yidi, the defending champion and world No 4, faces Romania's Elizabeta Samara at 7.15pm. Wang had the quickest win of day two, beating Egypt's Dina Meshref in 20 minutes 38 seconds. Samara, 37 and ranked 41st, beat Germany's Han Ying in four games on Tuesday. The two winners meet in the quarter-finals.

Two comebacks to follow

South Korea's Jang Woojin and Taiwan's Lin Yun-Ju both arrive in the last 16 having been behind. Jang, 31 and the world No 10, trailed France's Flavien Coton by two games before winning the last three. Lin, the fifth seed and world No 6, was 2-1 down to Portugal's João Geraldo and won the fourth game 11-4 after a timeout. They meet at 6.40pm, and the winner plays Gauzy, Wen or Liang in the quarter-finals.

Matsushima closes the day against Vladimir Sidorenko at 7.50pm. The 19-year-old world No 1 let a two-game lead slip against Germany's Dang Qiu on Tuesday before winning the decider 11-2. Sidorenko, 24 and ranked 19th, beat Darko Jorgic, the 11th seed, in four games. The winner faces Calderano, Shinozuka, Xiang or Ovtcharov in the last eight.

The rest of the first round

Lily Zhang of the US, 30, plays Australia's Yangzi Liu, 24, at 11.35am. Zhang lost to Adriana Diaz in the semi-finals of the Americas Championships last week. Diaz, the women's champion in Lima for a third year in a row, plays South Korea's Joo Cheonhui, ranked 17th, at 1.55pm, two days before her 26th birthday. The winner meets China's Kuai Man, who needed extra points in the decider to beat Wales's Anna Hursey.

China's Xiang Peng, 23 and ranked 34th, plays Germany's Ovtcharov, 38 and ranked 21st, at 12.10pm.

Order of play

All times UK (GMT) and approximate: matches follow one another on a single table, so they may start later if earlier matches run long.

• 11am: Wen Ruibo (CHN) v Liang Jingkun (CHN), men's singles, last 32
• 11.35am: Lily Zhang (USA) v Yangzi Liu (AUS), women's singles, last 32
• 12.10pm: Xiang Peng (CHN) v Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER), men's singles, last 32
• 12.45pm: Miwa Harimoto (JPN) v Bruna Takahashi (BRA), women's singles, last 32
• 1.20pm: Hiroto Shinozuka (JPN) v Hugo Calderano (BRA), men's singles, last 32
• 1.55pm: Joo Cheonhui (KOR) v Adriana Diaz (PUR), women's singles, last 32
• 5.30pm: Shunsuke Togami (JPN) v Truls Moregard (SWE), men's singles, last 16
• 6.05pm: Chen Xingtong (CHN) v Annett Kaufmann (GER), women's singles, last 16
• 6.40pm: Jang Woojin (KOR) v Lin Yun-Ju (TPE), men's singles, last 16
• 7.15pm: Elizabeta Samara (ROU) v Wang Yidi (CHN), women's singles, last 16
• 7.50pm: Sora Matsushima (JPN) v Vladimir Sidorenko, men's singles, last 16

How to watch

Both sessions are streamed live on World Table Tennis's YouTube channel, and the stream is on Eleven's WTT Champions Montpellier page and homepage, with live scores from every match. WTT Champions events are singles only and straight knockout, so one defeat ends a player's tournament.

Day two in brief

Gauzy beat Tomokazu Harimoto 15-13, 11-7, 11-6 to give the home crowd their only French winner of the day, as Alexis Lebrun lost from two games up to Patrick Franziska. Wang Manyu won all three games 11-9 against Egypt's Hana Goda, and Zhou Qihao came from two games down against Oh Junsung to set up a meeting with Félix Lebrun. Read the full day two review.