MUSCAT, MARCH 24 - Chinese Taipei’s No 3 seed Lin Yun-Ju beat Sweden’s top seed Mattias Falck 11-8, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7, 8-11, 11-8 to clinch the men’s singles title in the Seamaster 2019 ITTF Challenge Plus Oman Open in Muscat on Sunday. Successful earlier in the day in the men’s doubles event, Lin grabbed his first men’s singles title on either the ITTF World Tour or at an ITTF Challenge Series tournament. Japan’s Hina Hayata repeated her success five weeks ago in Portugal to claim the women’s singles crown. The No 9 seed, she beat Chinese Taipei’s Cheng I-Ching, the top seed, in the final 11-3, 11-5, 7-11, 11-9, 11-8.
Hayata thus regained the title secured two years earlier when she had prevailed in Almeria.
Once again a women’s singles title at an open international tournament eluded Cheng I-Ching. Despite being listed at No 8 on the current world rankings, her only previous women’s singles final appearance was in 2015 on the ITTF World Tour in Austria when beaten by Germany’s Han Ying.
Top seeds prevail
Chinese Taipei’s Liao Cheng-Ting and Lin Yun-Ju, the top seeds, beat Russian qualifiers, Denis Ivonin and Vladimir Sidorenko to clinch men’s doubles gold 11-8, 11-3, 11-7.
It is for the Chinese Taipei duo their second major international title; last year in November they emerged successful at the Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour Swedish Open.
Satsuki Odo and Saki Shibata, the No 2 seeds, beat Japanese colleagues Honoka Hashimoto and Hitomi Sato, the top seeds, to win the women’s doubles title 14-12, 11-5, 9-11, 11-6.
Thus they collected their third ITTF Challenge Series title as a partnership; last year they also won in Belarus and in Belgium.
Earlier, Lin Yun-Ju survived a major scare in his penultimate round contest. The No 3 seed was pushed right down to the wire, requiring seven games to defeat No 20 seed Tomislav Pucar 11-4, 11-7, 13-15, 8-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-8.
11-8, 11-5.
Cheng I-Ching earlier survived a fightback from Japan’s Hitomi Sato in the other semifinal. Down by a 3-1 margin, third seed Hitomi Sato won a tight battle in game five to reduce the deficit but it wasn’t enough to deter Cheng I-Ching, who came on top in game six to seal her spot in the final 11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 11-7, 13-15, 11-8.
In men’s semifinals, Mattias Falck prevailed over India’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran by the narrowest of margins. In an end-to-end contest neither player was able to register back-to-back game wins but by the close of game seven it was Sweden’s Falck who put his name into the gold medal match 11-8, 7-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 9-11, 12-10. “The tournament has been good. I’ve put in solid displays so far. I had a tough match in the second round also and a close victory. Sathiyan is a good player and strong in open rallies, as am I too!,” Falck said.
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