By Neha Aggarwal
The women’s singles competition has seen a lot of upsets as we move to the last 16 players that will fight to become World Champions.
In the last four day, 277 matches, 1345 games, 23765 points have been played in women’s singles competition, including both qualifications and main draw. 50% of matches have been decided in a 4-0 score and 21% of all matches played make the 58 upset results!
The most common game score has been 11-7 until now.
These crazy numbers might boggle you? There is more…
On day four, 1st June 2017, we saw three big upsets in the round of 32. Elizabeta Samara knocked out the ninth seed of the tournament, Hitomi Sato. Her teammate Daniela Dodean Monteiro, the 28th seed, followed suit as she knocked out the 12th seed, Liu Jia in five games (11-3, 13-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9).
The third upset was by the 22nd seed Miyu Kato (JPN) who out staged the 16th seed Yang Haeun (KOR) in seven games (11-7, 8-11, 12-10, 10-12, 13-11, 5-11, 11-4).
Seven of the top eight players (Ding Ning, Liu Shiwen, Zhu Yuling, Feng Tianwei, Chen Meng, Kasumi Ishikawa and Miu Hirano) stayed safe and moved to the round of 16 except for the biggest casualty of day three Cheng I-Ching who lost in the round of 64 to China’s Mu Zi.
The German women did not have a fine run, as only Kristin Silbereisen, world ranked 62 and seeded 37 in the tournament made it to the last 16, and thus is the only remaining German woman in singles.
11 Asians (5 China, 4 Japan, 1 Singapore, 1 DPR Korea) and only five Europeans (2 Romania, 1 Germany, 1 Spain and 1 Netherlands) are in fray in the last 16.
Biggest surprise in terms of ranking is Mu Zi, who is unranked! Additionally, huge appreciation for Spain’s Maria Xiao, who is ranked 100 in the world and is the lowest ranked player to enter the last 16.
The oldest player in the last 16 list is Li Jie (NED) at 33 years of age, whilst, the youngest is Japan’s Mima Ito aged 16 years old!
14 attackers and two defenders, Li Jie , Kin Song I (PRK) will be seen in action. Additionally, 14 right handed and 4 left handed players, Elizabeta Samara, Ding Ning, Kasumi Ishikawa, Maria Xiao will take the stage.
All 16 are 100% shake hand grip players!
Only 15 matches are remaining, heat is building up and and you don’t wanna miss any of this exciting action.
On 2nd June 2017, matches start at 10:00 am. Watch LIVE on tv.ittf.com.
