With tickets completely SOLD OUT for the penultimate WTT Star Contender of the year! The players are ready, the crowd is packed and we’re ready for a great WTT Star Contender London showdown!
The action kicks off from 11am as we kick off with the first women’s singles semi-final between Japan’s Hina Hayata and Chinese Taipei’s Cheng-I-Ching. Cheng defeated Manika Batra in three consecutive matches to advance to the semi-finals. Hayata avenged her teammate Mima Ito in doubles as she defeated Singapore’s Zeng Jian 3-0.
The first men’s singles match is scheduled for 11.40am and it promises to be an absolute epic. Lin Yun-Ju takes on Tomokazu Harimoto. Lin defeated Sora Matushima after leading 2-0 in the semi-finals before trailing 7-2 in the fifth end. A remarkable comeback saw him claim his spot in the semi-finals, setting up a third showdown between the pair this season. Harimoto will look to add his fourth WTT Men’s Singles title to his long list of achievements in London.
Miwa Harimoto will next face teammate Honoka Hashimoto in the final women’s singles semi-final. Miwa, Tomokazu’s younger sister, is going for her fifth singles title in this year’s WTT series. Harimoto defeated Yang Yiyun of China 3-0 in her quarter-final match, much easier than Hashimoto’s win over teammate Miyu Nagasaki of Japan, where the defensive player cruised through 11-8 in the decider.
It’s then the turn of the European men to take the stage, and with one European star confirmed in the men’s singles final, all that remains to be confirmed is whether it will be Poland’s Milosz Redzimski or Germany’s Dang Qiu who will raise the flag for Europe. It was also an all-European quarter-final, as Redzimski defeated Karlsson of Swede, while Dang defeated his teammate Kay Stumper of Germany.
The final match of the AM session is scheduled for 1:30 PM with the Mixed Doubles final between Lin Yun-Ju and Cheng-I-Ching as they take on Hong Kong’s Wong Chun Ting and Hoi Doo Kem, the first time these pairs have clashed since 2019. In that year, it was the Chinese Taipei pair that came out on top in both encounters, but the Hong Kong pair are looking for their first ever WTT title as a couple.
Then from 5pm we kick off the final session of the first ever WTT Star Contender, with the singles finals, which will be absolutely exciting. The event is now completely sold out and the atmosphere in the venue, and in particular the crowd, has been positively affected throughout the event, with many players highlighting how great the support has been. Make sure you never miss a moment of live action in England by signing up as a member here for priority ticket access.
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