by Simon Daish
Wang Manyu is involved in a major encounter at the top of the Women’s Singles draw as the sixth seeded player meets top seed Chen Meng at the quarter-finals stage of the competition.
The two Chinese competitors met three times on last year’s ITTF World Tour with Chen Meng winning on two occasions, but it was Wang Manyu who came out on top in their most recent match.
Austria’s Sofia Polcanova faces a difficult task in the last eight with China’s Chen Xingtong providing the opposition and Dutch contestant Li Jie takes on Chen Szu-Yu of Chinese Taipei.
Second seed Lee Ho Ching faces unseeded qualifier Sun Yingsha in the other quarter-finals tie. This is the first time that the two players have gone head-to-head on the international scene – will it be the seeded athlete or the rising Chinese star who will earn a place in the penultimate round?
Beginning his campaign in the qualifying stages Patrick Franziska is now just two wins away from reaching the Men’s Singles final but achieving that feat will be tricky for the German.
Awaiting Franziska in the quarter-finals is a tough match with Hugo Calderano, fourth seed, with the winner of the tie meeting either top seed Fan Zhendong or Kristian Karlsson, who occupies sixth position on the seeding list.
Wang Chuqin earned an impressive win in the last 16, defeating second seed Chuang Chih-Yuan in straight games and now the young Chinese contestant will take on another opponent from Chinese Taipei, Chen Chien-An. Liu Dingshuo and Jonathan Groth will contest the other quarter-finals tie in the lower half of the draw.
