Silverware up for grabs, battle for Under 21 titles set to continue

Wednesday 22nd February will see the first champions being crowned at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open in Doha with both the Under 21 Men’s and Women’s Singles events set to come to a conclusion, while qualifying matches for the Men’s and Women’s Singles competitions are also set to recommence.

Following the exit of the top two seeds Ho Kwan Kit and Tomokazu Harimoto, the highest ranked player remaining in the Under 21 Men’s Singles draw is the no.3 seed Cho Seungmin of Korea Republic.

Holding off a valiant effort made by Japan’s Mizuki Oikawa in the last eight, Cho Seungmin moves into the semi-finals of the tournament where he will meet Croatia’s Tomislav Pucar for a chance to reach the final.

France’s Andrea Landrieu produced one of the shocks of the quarter-finals when he eliminated Park Ganghyeon in a five game thriller (3-11, 11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 11-7), and his reward is a fixture with Chinese Taipei’s Lam Siu Hang in the lower half of the semi-final draw.

Players from two countries will have the chance to progress to the final of the Under 21 Women’s Singles competition with Hong Kong’s Soo Wai Yam Minnie and Doo Hoi Kem, and Japan’s Kyoka Kato and Saki Shibata having booked their places in the penultimate round of the event.

Soo Wai Yam Minnie registered a confidence boosting victory over the third seed Choi Hyojoo in the last eight (10-12, 11-6, 11-6, 11-4), while Doo Hoi Kem stormed to a straight games triumph over Miyu Maeda at the same stage of the draw.