Integral to German success in the Women’s Team event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games; on the morning of Saturday 25th February, Shan Xiaona duly reserved her place in the Women’s Singles semi-finals at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open in Doha. She emerged successful in her round of last eight contest against Natalia Partyka (14-12, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8). The success came after Chinese Taipei’s Cheng I-Ching, the no.4 seed, had been forced to withdraw from proceedings,

Day Three of the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open will see the Women's and Men's Singles events be narrowed down to two players each as the race for the respective finals enters the home straight on Saturday 25th February. The day will start off with quarter-finals action from both singles competitions before concluding with semi-final fixtures to determine which players will compete in the finals. Japan’s Mima Ito has three ITTF World Tour Women’s Singles titles to

Germany’s Shan Xiaona caused the biggest upset; Poland’s Natalia Partyka gave the most accomplished performance as play began in the second round of the Women’s Singles event at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open in Doha on the evening on Friday 24th February. Both caused upsets, with Shan Xiaona taking pride of place. Adopting her fast attacking pen-hold grip skills to good effect, staying close the table at all times, she beat China’s Zhu Yuling in five games (11

Rising to the occasion, meeting the challenge, it is nothing new for Poland’s Natalia Partyka; commencing in Athens in 2004, she has no less than five Paralympic Games gold medals to her credit. On Thursday 23rd February in the opening round of the Women’s Singles event at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open in Doha; once again she rose to the occasion, she met the challenge. She beat the bodyguard, the player who is there to protect her Chinese colleagues from fore