The world’s best players converged on Hong Kong this week, with four turning up to play on the final day of the WTT Finals. At this point, Wang Chuqin, Lin Shidong, Tomokazu Harimoto and Truls Moregard had emerged to reach the semi-finals and it seemed that the surprises of the event were over. We couldn’t have been more wrong.
Tomokazu Harimoto and Lin Shidong had an epic battle in the first half of Sunday’s semifinals. Harimoto won the first two matches (a narrow 12-10 victory and then an 11-4 dominant performance). Shidong then turned the tables and secured a pair of 12-10 wins to level the score. Harimoto and Shidong then traded wins, with Harimoto coming out on top.
The other half of the draw was less exciting, but just as surprising. Wang Chuqin was battling a back injury and while he came ready to play, he withdrew – a walkover win for Truls Moregard. Chuqin’s doubles partner Sun Yingsha had also withdrawn from the women’s singles a day earlier – and the pair battled through their respective injuries to narrowly lose the mixed doubles final. Perhaps too many games for the talented pair of world No. 1 players.
This set up a men’s singles final between a Swede and a Japanese player, with the top-seeded Chinese watching from the sidelines. As in the early match between Harimoto and Shidong, the two finalists traded games to 2-2. Harimoto won the first and third games, and Moregard answered both times. In game five, both players traded points to a 14-12 Harimoto victory. And that essentially clinched the match: Harimoto rolled through the final game, easily winning 11-2 and taking the 4-2 victory.
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