By Neha Aggarwal
Last week in Japan, he had shown doors to World no.10 Chuang Chih-Yuan in round one. Today in Chenhdu he created another sizzling upset.
Placed at no.81 on the global charts, Jin Ueda beat Stefan Fegerl, World no.21, in an impressive four-one win (10-12, 10-12, 11-4, 11-13,11-13) in the opening round.
In Japan, he was halted in round two by team mate Koki Niwa. In Chengdu, he will again fight against his team mate. This time it’s Masaki Yoshida, who moved to round two after his fancied opponent Zhang Jike withdrew the match due to a hip injury.
Meanwhile, there was no stopping the other Grand Slam champion, Ma Long as he moved smoothly to round two beating Japan’s Kenta Tazoe (Jin five games ( 11-5, 7-11, 11-6, 11-6,11-7). His fan club skipped a heartbeat when he lost the second game, but they were delighted with his over all win.
“I think losing one game is normal. It is my first match. I made some mistakes in the second game. I hope I can perform better tomorrow. No matter my current status is good or not, as long as I can win the match, it is good.”- Ma Long
German star Dimitrij Ovtcharov had to battle his way through, he won in an intense six games match against Japan’s Tonin Ryuzaki (6-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-4, 8-11, 11-3) and cruised his way to round two. He will now face Sweden’s Kristian Karlsson who beat Japan’s Asuka Sakai in four games (11-3, 11-6, 11-8, 11-6).
Other two Japanese left in fray in the top half, Yuya Oshima and Kenta Matsudaira kept the nation’s flag high. World no.22 Oshima knocked out World no.118 Hong Kong’s Lam Siu Hang in an intense four-two win (11-9, 11-3, 8-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-6).
Kenta Matsudaira on the other hand kept it easy winning four-nil over Belgium’s Cedric Nuytinck (11-5, 11-5, 11-7, 11-9). He will now face a tough challenge against the pen-holder China’s Wong Chun Ting who struggled past Korea’s Lim Jonghoon (11-7, 14-12, 11-8, 7-11,8-11,11-6).
The lower half of Men’s Singles round of 32 will be played from 19:40 hrs local time. Watch LIVE on tv.ittf.com.
