MUSCAT, Oct 31
Men's No 1 seed Lin Shidong of China, title owner of three WTT Series singles events, registered a tough 3-2 win over India's World No 73 Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (10-12, 3-11, 11-8, 11-1, 11-5) and later beat Hong Kong's Chan Baldwin 3-1 to reach the quarterfinals in the WTT Contender Muscat 2024 on Thursday. Lin will meet China's Chen Yanyu in the quarterfinal after Yanyu defeated his compatriot Zhou Qihao 3-0 in their last-16 match.
India’s Manav Vikash Thakkar overcame Japan's Yuta Tanaka 3-1 in a tight clash to set up a last-16 clash against Xue Fei from China who defeated Japan's Hiroto Shinozuka 3-1.
Commenting after the win, Manav Vikash said:” It was a very tough match. I had earlier won against Japanese player Yuta Tanaka in a junior event in 2018 after close match. I could manage to rekindle the good memories by winning this match. My target is to keep this momentum as I will meet China's Xue Fei in a tough last 16 round match. I am confident and I will look to go further in this tournament.”
“I like to play in Oman and I am very keen to attend in all the WTT events in Muscat. The food and the tables of STAG are very similar to my home country and these factors are essential to perform perfectly in the tournament,” he added.
Iran’s Navid Shams bounced back strongly as he defeated Japan’s Ko'ed Ryoichi Yoshiyama 3-2 (7-11, 11-5, 7-11, 11-7, 11-7). He managed to utilise his wildcard and the 19-year-old will have a very tough assignment as he will meet World No 9 Lin Gaoyuan in the last 16 round.
Japan’s Yukiya Uda (World No 6) eliminated China's Huang Youzheng 3-2 (13-11, 9-11, 11-7, 9-11, 16-18) to set up a match against China's Xinag Peng in the quarterfinal.
In the women's singles, Chinese He Zhuojia (World No 41) reached the quarterfinals after beating World No 57 Zhu Chengzhu from Hong Kong.
South Korean Kim Nayeong managed to secure spot in the quarterfinals after edging Indian’s Ayhika Mukherji 3-1 while Kuai Man blanked Doo Hoi from Hong Kong by 3-0 to set up a clash against Kim.
The WTT Contender Muscat 2024 will get closer to the conclusion with the mixed doubles final on Friday while the finals of other events will be held on Saturday.
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