Second Seed Falls at Second Hurdle in Santiago

Lausanne-Switzerland, April 28, 2012: No international success of note to her name, 24 year old ZHENG Jiaqi from the United States, was the player to cause the biggest upset on the third day of action, Friday 27th April, at the GAC GROUP 2012 ITTF World Tour Chile Open in Santiago.

She recovered from a three games to nil deficit to beat second seed, Japan’s 19 year old, Kasumi ISHIKAWA (8-11, 9-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-6, 13-11, 11-6) in their second round encounter. Currently ZHENG Jiaqi stands at no.161 on the Women’s World Ranking list, as opposed to Kasumi ISHIKAWA who is at no.6.

However, ZHENG Jiaqi has a paucity of international appearances but when she has appeared, she has underlined the fact she is is player of calibre. Notably in 2009 at the China Open in Tianjin, she beat Croatia’s Tamara BOROS and Hong Kong’s JIANG Huajun, both players who have held top ten world rankings and have won Women’s Singles titles on the ITTF Pro Tour.

Defeat for Kasumi ISHIKAWA but she was the only one of the top four seeds in the Women’s Singles event to experience an earlier than expected exit. Singapore, FENG Tianwei, the top seed, in addition to Japan’s Ai FUKUHARA and Singapore’s LI Jiawei, the respective third and fourth seeded players, duly booked quarter-final places.

Similarly amongst the top four men there was one casualty.

Singapore’s LI Hu, who in December 2003 had won the Boys’ Singles title at the inaugural World Junior Championships, staged in Santiago, experienced different emotions in the city nine years later.

The fourth seed in the Men’s Singles event, he was beaten in round two by Brazil’s Cazuo Matsumoto, the no.13 seed (5-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-2, 9-11, 9-11, 11-7), who booked a quarter-final place in a Men’s Singles event on Tour for only the second time in his career, the one previous occasion, the Chile Open in 2011.

Defeat for LI Hu, but no problems for his Singaporean colleagues, GAO Ning and ZHAN Jian, the respective second and third seed; they both cruised to the quarter-finals, as did Japan’s Jun MIZUTANI, the top seed.

Photo by Cristian Larrain