by Neha Aggarwal
The battle returns: Ding Ning versus Miu Hirano
In the last two months, they have already played twice. Miu Hirano won at the Asian Championships in April beating Ding Ning in the quarter-finals. However, Ding Ning took her revenge, she emerged victorious in their semi-final encounter at the Liebherr 2017 World Championships three weeks ago, also winning the title. Currently, Miu Hirano is the only one who has beaten the Chinese. They meet again in the Women’s Singles quarter-finals on Chinese soil; can Ding Ning take the home advantage, or will Miu Hirano repeat Asian Championships success and invade the Chinese territory?
Well, the winner of their match has won titles in the last two times. Does this ring a bell?
Watch LIVE: 10:00am local time (GMT+8)
Good omen for Ovtcharov?
In the Men’s Singles quarter-finals, Dimitrij Ovtcharov meets Yuya Oshima but it’s not the first time. In February this year at the 2017 ITTF World Tour India Open, the two met in the same round. Ovtcharov beat Oshima in seven games and ended up winning the title. With no Chinese left in the draw, is this his best chance to win the China Open?
Watch LIVE: 11:30am local time
Can Feng Tianwei put an end to the rising Sun?
A 16 year old winning a World Tour title in her senior debut is a rare sight. China’s Sun Yingsha popped out of nowhere to win in Tokyo last week beating world no.5 Chen Meng in the final. Still unranked, Sun Yingsha has now recorded nine wins in a row since Wednesday 14th June. She will face World no.4 Feng Tianwei in the quarter-finals. Playing against her for the first time, Feng Tianwei will be pressurized.
Keep an eye on this match to find out if the ‘Sun’ (Yingsha) will continue to rise or will Feng Tianwei put an end to the rise of the Chinese teenager!
Watch LIVE: 2:00pm local time.
Harimoto in safe zone?
Tomokazu Harimoto, 13 years old, is ranked 69 in the world but plays like a World Champion. He beat the legendary Vladimir Samsonov in the first round, and received a walk-over in the second over Xu Xin. In the quarter-finals he will meet team mate Koki Niwa. An all Japanese quarter-final will be one tremendous match as both fierce attackers will be hitting those bullets that you must not miss! But the bigger question is, will Harimoto survive? If he wins, he will face the winner of Timo Boll and Kim Donghyun, and you never know, he might meet Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the final and take his revenge of the Indian Open final loss!
Too much at stake for this 13 year-old, or maybe not. He enjoys the game way too much. We enjoy his celebrations more!
Make sure you watch him LIVE: 3:30pm local time.
Semi-final to end the day
Both Women’s and Men’s singles semi finals will begin from 6.30pm onwards, by the end of the day, all these questions will be answered!
Excited? For all LIVE action visit: tv.ittf.com.
