On the evening of January 10th, Beijing time, the men's singles 1/8 finals of the 2025 WTT Star Challenge Doha Station were held. Chinese table tennis players Xiang Peng and Huang Youzheng competed one after another, both losing with a score of 1-3 and being eliminated from the competition. Meanwhile, Hong Kong's renowned player Wong Chun Ting narrowly advanced to the next round.
Originally, the national table tennis team sent five players to participate in this event. Zhou Qihao withdrew due to injury, and Xu Yingbin failed to pass the qualifying rounds, leaving only Xiang Peng, Chen Yuanyu, and Huang Youzheng to compete in the main event. Chen Yuanyu was eliminated in the previous round by Germany's second-seeded player, Qiu Dang. In this round, Huang Youzheng was also defeated by Qiu Dang, while Xiang Peng lost to Japan's Matsushima Kakeru.
In the upper half of the draw, there was a match between China's Xiang Peng and Japan's Matsushima Kakeru. They had not faced each other directly in the domestic Super League before, but they finally met on the international stage. Xiang Peng did not perform well in this match, being consistently pressured by his opponent in the first two sets. Although he made some adjustments in the third set after a timeout, he was once again off-rhythm in the fourth set and ultimately lost the match.
Additionally, Zhang Jike defeated his compatriot Jikun Zhen 3-1, South Korea's Park Kang-hyeon won 3-0 against France's Di Bo-Bolet, and Nigeria's Aruna narrowly defeated Spain's Robles 3-2.
As a result, the quarterfinals in the upper half of the draw will see Zhang Jike compete against Matsushima Kakeru, and Park Kang-hyeon face off against Aruna.
In the lower half of the draw:
Wong Chun Ting defeated Ueda Kohei 3-2 [9-11, 11-5, 7-11, 11-9, 11-9]
Shibasaki Daito defeated Darko Jorgic 3-2 [11-6, 7-11, 11-7, 5-11, 12-10]
Jonathan Groth vs. Redzimski [Match not yet played]
Huang Youzheng lost to Qiu Dang 1-3 [8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 9-11]
Huang Youzheng, the men's singles champion at the 2024 National Table Tennis Championships, is only 19 years old and currently ranked 84th in the world. In this match against German veteran Qiu Dang, Huang Youzheng appeared somewhat inexperienced and needed to improve his control over the table. With Huang Youzheng's elimination, all of the national table tennis team's male singles players have been knocked out, meaning that the subsequent men's singles matches will no longer involve the national team.
Hong Kong's renowned player Wong Chun Ting competed in this round against Japan's Ueda Kohei. The match was extremely tough, and after a grueling five sets, Wong Chun Ting managed to secure a narrow victory with a score of 3-2. Wong Chun Ting will continue to face Japanese opponents, as he will compete against Shibasaki Daito for a spot in the semi-finals in the quarterfinals.
Furthermore, Japanese player Shibasaki Daito narrowly defeated Slovenian veteran Jorgic with a score of 3-2.