In the second round of the women's singles of the WTT Doha Star Challenge, Taipei veteran Chen Siyu defeated French teenager Lutz 3-0. Lutz's receiving technique is relatively advanced, and the stability of the attack is not high. If the stability is higher, there will be no direct sweeping, and at least one game can be won.
Chen Siyu won the first two games 11-5 and the third game 11-4. Chen Siyu's backhand attack is very strong, and Lutz really does not have any advantage when he hits the ball to hold the ball. Singaporean veteran Zeng Jian defeated Anna 3-0, winning the first two games 11-8 and the third game 11-7, winning easily.
Zeng Jian is also an experienced player, although the playing skills are relatively backward, but the opponent with average strength is still relatively good. Liu Xinyin defeated Picorin 3-0, and the process of winning was quite easy. Liu Xinyin will face Zeng Jian in the next round, which is also a contest between two veterans, and I believe it must be very exciting.
The most exciting match was South Korean veteran Seo Hyo-won narrowly defeated India's Mukherjee 3-2, who had beaten Chen Meng in the Asian Games doubles. In the first game, Xu Xiaoyuan failed to grasp the key points 11-13, and easily won the next two games 11-6 and 11-4 respectively.
Mukherjee's lack of speed and increased offensive errors led to a 1-2 deficit. However, in the fourth game, Xu Xiaoyuan lost 8-11, because the veteran's concentration declined. In the deciding game, Xu Xiaoyuan did not give the opponent a chance to fight back, and easily won 11-5.
Mukherjee still doesn't look like he's going to be able to chip, and he needs to step up in that regard. The reason why Asian veterans such as Xu Xiaoyuan and Liu Xinyin can continue to play is that they still have a rich ability to read the game in the face of young players.
Taipei's young player Li Yuzhen narrowly defeated Europe's Vivarelli 3-2, and Li Yuzhen lost points 10-12 in the fourth game after taking a big 2-1 lead, otherwise he would not have been dragged into the tiebreaker. Li Yuzhen still won very hard, this is only a qualifying round, and it is estimated that there will be instability again when it comes to the main competition.
There was also an upset in the men's singles competition, Japanese veteran Yoshimura Maharu lost 1-3 to Iran's Alamian, in the team competition of this year's Asian Games, Yoshimura Maharu was defeated by Iranian players, and the Iranian team also won a medal by defeating the Japanese team. In this game, Alamian still showed strong defensive ability, losing the first game 7-11 and winning the second game 11-3.
In the next two games, Alamian became more and more courageous, and Yoshimura Maharu mainly couldn't beat the opponent. Therefore, the more he played in the game, the more weak he became, and he lost 4-11 in the fourth game. Yoshimura is also a long-established veteran, who also defeated Malone at the beginning of 2023, and the reason why he lost by a large margin was because Alamean's defense was airtight.
The Iranian athlete is indeed tenacious defensively, as he showed the fans in last year's Asian Games. Another men's singles qualifying match also had an upset, Hong Kong's Chan Ho-wah narrowly defeated Singapore's Kwok Yong 3-2, and after falling behind by a large score, Chan Ho-wah easily won the fourth game 11-4 and dragged the game into the deciding game.
Guo Yong failed to grab the opening game directly in the deciding game and fell behind 1-7, although he chased the score to 9-10, but still lost the key points 9-11. Guo Yong lost the tiebreaker too much, and Chen Haohua, as a young player, also showed a strong ability to reverse and refreshed the fans' perceptions. may also be that Guo Yong is too underestimated by the enemy, and it is too undeserved to be reversed by the opponent when he is leading by a large score.
England's He Tian Tian narrowly defeated South Korea's Choi Hyo-joo 3-2, and four of the five games between the two sides were won by each other on key points. Choi Hyo-joo is also a Mesozoic player, and he has a good performance in the doubles and singles of the Korean team, but he didn't expect to be defeated in this game.
He Tiantian narrowly won the tiebreaker 14-12, maybe Choi Hyo-joo has not participated in international competitions for a long time and is too unfamiliar with this competitor, so there will be an upset loss. Another Portuguese veteran, Fu Yu, swept Hong Kong's Wu Yonglin 3-0, Fu Yu is a traditional straight board push block play, focusing more on tactical changes.
Wu Yonglin was very passive in the first two games, losing 3-11 and 5-11 respectively. In the third game, I finally got used to it, and still lost the key points 10-12 and didn't win a single game. Last year, national table tennis player Chen Yi also had a similar situation in the face of Fu Yu, Fu Yu's backhand was a push, and his forehand offensive ability was relatively strong.
Therefore, as long as the landing point is given to the opponent's backhand, there is a great hope of winning with the opponent's backhand. Overall, the qualifying round for the Doha Stars Challenge was exciting, with most of the veterans showing absolute strength. Although many veterans are not ranked high in the world, their overall strength is still quite outstanding.
This shows the gold content of this Doha Star Challenge, and it is even called the Little World Table Tennis Championships by fans, which can allow the vast majority of table tennis players to participate, which shows the appeal of the Doha Star Challenge. After all, the Olympics are approaching, and many players need points to increase their rankings, and there is no restriction on registration for this challenge, so there are many competitors.