Joseph Hunter will be the first English player in action when WTT Star Contender London kicks off tomorrow morning.
Hunter, who is currently unranked, will take on Nigeria’s Abdulbasit Abdulfatai (WR 201) at 10am, with the winner facing top seed in the qualifier Ryoichi Yoshiyama (WR 75) of Japan.
In men’s singles, all English players must win three matches if they want to reach the main draw.
At least one is guaranteed to reach the second round, with the two unranked southpaws, Felix Thomis and Louis Price, facing off for the right to face Japan’s Kuzuhiro Yoshimura (WR 96).
Andrew Baggaley (WR 461) meets Filip Zeljko (WR 197) of Croatia, with the winner playing Germany’s Cedric Meissner (WR 132), while unranked Larry Trumpauskas has been signed to play Wong Qi Shen (WR 217) of Malaysia, while Ylane Batix (WR 93) of Cameroon awaits the winner. David McBeath (WR 986) takes on Mael Van Dessel (WR 360) from the Netherlands.
The youngest English players are all in the bottom half of the draw, where Abraham Sellado (WR 1060) will face South Korea’s Ho Jeongmun (WR 424) and Max Radiven (WR 1160) will face France’s Remi Betelu (WR 167).
The Piwowar brothers could theoretically meet in the third qualifying round, but have tough tasks in the first – Kacper (WR 1118) will face Hong Kong’s Ho Kwan Kit (WR 166) and unranked Jakub will play Germany’s Ruwen Filus (WR 418).
The only doubles entry for English players at this stage is in the Mixed, where Sam Walker & Tin-Tin Ho will face Singapore’s Izaac Quek & Qian Ser Lin in the only qualifying round.
In the women’s competition, Anna Green (WR 808) has been drawn in the first qualifying round against Romania’s Elena Zaharia (WR 197), while Ella Pashley (WR 908), fresh from her senior tournament debut in England at the European Championships, will face wildcard Millie Stoffregen (WR 525) from Denmark – with the winner taking on the second highest ranked player in the qualification, Fatimo Bello from Nigeria. (WR118).
The other English players have bowed out of the second qualifying round, taking two wins in the main draw.
Jasmin Wong (WR 810) will face Tsai Yun-En of Chinese Taipei in the second round – with the winner likely to meet the No. 1 player in the qualifier, Hana Arapovic of Croatia (WR 109), in the final qualifying round.
Mari Baldwin (WR 939) will take on Leana Hochart of France, while Sophie Earley (WR 737) will take on Tatiana Kukulkova (WR 149) of Slovakia. Sienna Jetha (WR 907) also faces French opposition in Audrey Zarif (WR 138).
Jersey’s unranked Hannah Silcock will face Italy’s Debora Vivarelli (WR 143) in the second qualifying round.
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