The first WTT Champions Series event of the year ended in a stormy Sunday in Doha, with four of the last six matches going to the lower-rated player. In men’s singles, the two setbacks both occurred in the semifinals. World number 2 Lin Shidong lost 4-2 to Jan Woojin. Woojin had a great tournament beating Alexis Lebrun, Togami and Moregard just to reach the semi-finals. Shidong won the opening game to take the early lead, but after that it was three straight games for Jang Woojin to establish a big lead – and he held on for the 4-1 win. The other half of the tie also ended in disappointment, with Tomokazu Harimoto trailing 0–2 and fighting back to lead 3–2, before Lin Yun-Ju dominated the final two games for the 4–3 victory.
This set up a highly unlikely men’s singles final between world number 13 Lin Yun-Ju and world number 18 Jan Woojin (who were the 12th and 17th seeded players in the tournament respectively). The final ended 4-0 (in favor of Lin Yun-Ju), but only the first game saw any separation between the two players – with Lin Yun-Ju holding a 4-point lead for most of that game. The second game was tied 8-8 before Lin Yun-Ju won 11-9, the third game was tied 8-8 before Lin Yun-Ju won 11-9, and in the final game it was 8-8 again, with Lin Yun-Ju eventually winning 13-11. Woojin made the bigger swings, with tremendous power, especially on the forehand side. For Yun-Ju, he was the complete player the tour hasn’t seen for several years: big shots when open, great ball touch at the net, nice overspin midway through the rally points that totally changed the pace, forcing positional adjustments and movements. In 2021, Lin Yun-Ju briefly climbed to fifth place in the rankings – perhaps 2026 will be a big year for the 24-year-old seasoned pro from Taipei. In addition to the $40,000 cash prize, the winner will also receive 1,000 points – enough to return Lin Yun-Ju to the World Top 10 in the next rankings.
Germany’s Ying Han reached the semi-finals on Saturday by upsetting world number 2 Wang Manyu. Ying Han fell 4-2 to higher-seeded Zhu Yuling of Macau on Sunday – and that was the only match on Sunday that did not end in disappointment. The other half of the draw featured two top Chinese players, with Chen
The women’s final was then a meeting between Zhu Yuling and Chen Xingtong. To date, Zhu Yuling (who played for the Chinese team before moving to Macau) has the advantage, having won four of the previous six matches. Today’s combination of styles went to the heavy spin and tricky variation of Zhu Yuling in contrast to the brute force of Chen Xingtong. The momentum changed several times. Xingtong easily won the opening match 11-5. In the next match, the two played even until the end before Zhu took the lead for the 13–11 win. The third game was not close – Xingtong again won easily 11-3. From then on, however, it was all Zhu as he won 11-7, 11-8 and then 13-11 to secure the win.
The next event of the tour takes place in Doha, where the Lusail Sports Arena also plays host to a WTT Star Contender series event starting on Tuesday. Lin Shidong, Hugo Calderano, Tomokazu Harimoto and today’s winner Lin Yun-Ju are all expected to participate.
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