Qatar Open Victory and Upsets

ITTF Platinum event Qatar Open 2020 has just started with entertaining results on the preliminary day. Here is a summery of exciting results on the first day in Doha, Qatar Open-

Men’s category

• China’s Yan An no.131 accounted India’s Harmeet Desai no.87 (11-6, 10-12, 13-11, 11-5, 11-9)
• Alexandre Cassin no.155 beat Finland’s Benedek Olah no.95 (4-11, 11-7, 12-10, 9-11, 12-14, 11-7, 12-10)
• Singapore’s Pang Yew En Koen no.186 beat Belgium’s Florent Lambiet no.111 (11-8, 8-11, 11-3, 10-12, 11-7, 12-10)
• Serbia’s Zsolt Peto no.174 defeated Mexico’s Marcos Madrid no.76 (4-11, 11-8, 6-11, 13-11, 3-11, 11-5, 11-8)
• China’s Xiang Peng no.120 overcame Frenchman Can Akkuzu no.77 (11-9, 8-11, 11-5, 7-11, 11-3, 12-14, 11-6)
• China’s Xu Chenhao no.147 ended the hopes of Austria’s Stefan Fegerl no.87 (11-6, 11-7, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7)
• Truls Moregard, no.98 secured an opening round men’s singles win against Fang Bo no.296 (11-4, 9-11, 11-9, 7-11, 10-12, 11-4, 12-10)
• China’s Zhou Qihao negotiated a tricky encounter against Belarusian opponent Aliaksandr Khanin 4-1 (11-9, 11-7, 10-12, 11-7, 13-11)
• Benedikt Duda was in imperious mood against India’s Jeet Chandra, as he beat the Asian in straight games (11-3, 11-4, 11-5, 11-7) in under 22 minutes

“I feel amazing, it was really nice to win this match. We both won some tough game but in the end when I manage to stay calm and make some really good points I won, I’m really happy. It’s one of the best win of my career so far. He is still unbelivably good even though his World Ranking has dropped. I’m just really happy. Before playing in the Japanese league, you have a lot of respect for these players but practicing with these top players it helps to make lower that feeling and can play more freely” Truls Moregard

Women’s category

• India’s Mukharjee Sutirtha beat Ali Maha of Qatar, (11-4,11-2,11-4,11-2)
• Japan’s Sakura Yokoi beat Denmark’s Stefanie Christensen, no.247 (11-4, 12-10, 11-2, 11-7)
• Haruna Sugita accounted for Stéphanie Loeuillette, no.95 (8-11, 3-11, 11-9, 15-13, 12-10, 11-4)

That’s a wrap up of first day of ITTF Platinum Open 2020. Refer to the Official ITTF Qatar Open for live matches.