by ITTF

Top seed in the Men’s Singles event is Japan’s Jun Mizutani, the winner one year ago in Melbourne and most notably bronze medallist at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. He is the favourite to lift the boomerang trophy when play concludes on Friday 7th July.

“I am very happy to be here in Australia, it is a beautiful country. I am here to defend my title and I hope I play my best and can win my second Australian Open.” Jun Mizutani

Major challengers to Jun Mizutani’s ambitions emanate from colleague Koki Niwa, Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus, Portugal’s Marcos Freitas, Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan and Frenchman Simon Gauzy.

Meanwhile, the leading name in the Women’s Singles event is China’s Zhu Yuling, the runner up at the recent Liebherr 2017 World Championships in Düsseldorf.

“The Australian Open is a great opportunity for me to win another title. I have been playing well and I hope this continues and I can win the trophy here in this beautiful country.” Zhu Yuling

Similar to Jun Mizutani, stiff opposition awaits Zhu Yuling. Notably present in Gold Coast is Japan’s Miu Hirano, the player against whom she experienced defeat earlier this year at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF Asian Championships in the Chinese city of Wuxi.

Miu Hirano is the no.5 seed, in the Women’s Singles event, Singapore’s Feng Tianwei is the no.2 seed followed by China’s Chen Meng and Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa.