Lausanne – Feb, 14, 2013: A total prize fund of $300,000 in an overall ITTF World Tour worth over $2,500,000, the first Super Series tournament of the year, the Kuwait Open, provides a major challenge for celebrated names.
No less than four men and three women, who during their careers have won singles titles on the ITTF World Tour, appear in the qualification stages of proceedings which occupy the first two days of action; Thursday 14th and Friday 15th February 2013.
Belgium’s Jean-Michel Saive, Brazil’s Cazuo Matsumoto, Russia’s Fedor Kuzmin and Vasily Lakeev are the four redoubtables who must compete in the qualification stage of the Men’s Singles event. Korea’s Jeon Jihee, Japan’s Sayaka Hirano and Spain’s Sara Ramirez are the ladies must participate in the first phase of the Women’s Singles competition. All have stood proudly on the top step of an ITTF World Tour podium.
All face testing times on the first two days, none more so than 43 year Jean-Michel Saive, the 1994 European champion; in his qualifying group he confronts Japan’s 17 year old, Masataka MORIZONO, the winner of the Boys’ Singles titles at the recently completed ITTF Junior Circuit Finals in Guatemala.
The quicksilver Japanese teenager has no inhibitions and the ageing star has experienced problems against aspiring young men in recent tournaments. At the Brazil Open in June 2012, he was beaten by the host nation’s Hugo Calderano, 15 years old at the time. More recently, earlier this year in January at the Spanish Open, he suffered defeat at the hands of 17 year old Frenchman, Alexandre Robinot.
In the Men’s Singles event, players finishing in first place in each of the 20 groups advance directly to the main draw; those in second place proceed to the preliminary round. The winners of the preliminary round matches plus two “Lucky Losers” from that round join the 32 seeds in the first round. In the Women’s Singles event matters are more straightforward; only the players finishing in first place in each of the 16 groups progress to the main draw where they join the 16 seeds.
Play in the main draw commences on Saturday 16th February with a powerful Chinese contigent entering the fray.
ZHANG Jike, the reigning Olympic and World champion, is on duty in the Men’s Singles event and occupies the second seeded position in the draw behind colleague XU Xin, the winner of the Men’s Singles title at the GAC GROUP 2012 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in December.
Meanwhile, DING Ning, the reigning World champion is the top seed in the Women’s Singles competition with LI Xiaoxia, the Olympic gold medallist, being the third seed. LIU Shiwen, the winner of the Volkswagen Women’s World Cup and GAC GROUP 2012 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals is the second seed.
Seeds (Top Eight)
Men: 1. XU Xin (CHN) 2. ZHANG Jike (CHN) 3. MA Long (CHN) 4. WANG Hao (CHN) 5. CHUANG Chih-Yuan (TPE) 6. Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) 7. Jun MIZUTANI (JPN) 8. JIANG Tianyi (HKG)
Women: 1. DING Ning (CHN) 2. LIU Shiwen (CHN) 3. LI Xiaoxia (CHN) 4. FENG Tianwei (SIN) 5. Ai FUKUHARA (JPN) 6. SHEN Yanfei (ESP) 7. Kasumi ISHIKAWA (JPN) 8. CHEN Meng (CHN) . —- ITTF/ Photo: Pablo Rubio
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