DURBAN, South Africa, May 18 (Xinhua) — The draw for the 2023 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships (WTTC) Finals was performed in Durban on Thursday, establishing the potential battles on the trail to the summit.
Present on the draw ceremony, males’s singles defending champion, Fan Zhendong, was granted a first-round bye. Wong Chun Ting of Hong Kong, China, and Germany’s Qiu Dang might be Fan’s potential rivals on the path to what could be a rematch of the earlier remaining in opposition to Swedish whizzkid, Truls Moregard, within the quarterfinals.
Fan’s compatriot, Liang Jingkun, was drawn in the identical quarter with world No. 4 Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan. Liang’s chief competitors on his approach to the quarterfinal stage in opposition to Harimoto may come from French teen prodigy, Alexis Lebrun who beforehand upset Fan within the World Table Tennis (WTT) Champions Macao quarterfinals, or Slovenian Darko Jorgic.
Drawn into the underside half are China’s titan, Ma Long, and rising star Wang Chuqin. They could be heading in direction of a semifinal face-off. However, formidable opponents resembling Lim Jong-hoon of South Korea, Lin Yun-Ju of Chinese Taipei, and Brazilian virtuoso, Hugo Calderano, current important challenges to the Chinese duo’s hopes of securing their final 4 berths.
In her pursuit of her inaugural world championship within the girls’s singles, China’s top-ranked Sun Yingsha may face resistance from French stalwart, Yuan Jianan, or German defender, Han Ying, in her quarter.
Sun’s compatriot, Wang Yidi, faces a doubtlessly robust second quarter. She may conflict with Japanese rivals Hina Hayata, Miu Hirano, or Miyu Nagasaki on her path to the semifinals.
Olympic champion Chen Meng and defending champion Wang Manyu have been positioned within the backside half, however earlier than their doable semifinal face-off, they have to overcome Mima Ito of Japan and Cheng I-Ching of Chinese Taipei.
The draw for the doubles occasions adopted the singles. Fan Zhendong/Wang Chuqin and Lin Gaoyuan/Lin Shidong characterize China within the males’s doubles. Meanwhile, defending champions Sun Yingsha/Wang Manyu, alongside Chen Meng/Wang Yidi, intention to assist China retain the ladies’s doubles title.
The Chinese blended doubles groups on the Durban Table Tennis Worlds will embrace world No. 1 Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha and upcoming skills Lin Shidong/Kuai Man.
The desk tennis worlds can be held on the Durban International Convention Center from May 20 to twenty-eight. This occasion marks the much-anticipated return of desk tennis to Africa after an 84-year absence.