WTT Continues to Shock with Upsets: Second Top Seed Eliminated, World Champion Suffers a 0-3 Defeat, Tomokazu Harimoto Claims a Big Victory
On January 15th, Beijing time, the 2025 WTT regular challenge match in Masqat continued. The first round has concluded, and in the men's singles competition, four players from the national team participated, with three advancing and one eliminated.
The loser was Xu Yingbin, who lost 0-3 to Ochamov, with scores of 6-11, 11-13, and 9-11. The last two sets were close defeats, with the scores being very close, all lost on key points. For two consecutive stations, the men's singles performance was not ideal, and they were eliminated early, indicating that the singles form is still not good.
Huang Youzheng defeated Manav Vikash Thakkar 3-1, losing the first set 8-11 but then winning three consecutive sets with scores of 11-3, 11-6, and 11-9 to achieve a reversal. Overall, Huang Youzheng's strength is above his opponent's, although this game was not played well, the rhythm was not established, and he won with hard power, having an advantage in the standstill confrontation.
Chen Yuanyu defeated Apollonia 3-1, with scores of 11-7, 8-11, 11-5, and 11-6. The overall performance was relatively stable, and the offense could basically be executed in the last two sets, with an advantage in terms of strength.
Xiang Peng defeated French player Jules Rolland 3-0, with scores of 11-9, 13-11, and 11-8. Although he won in three sets, the process was very close and not easy. From the scores, it can be seen that they were all very close. Jules Rolland possesses strong skills, with outstanding offense and active attacks, performing very well. Xiang Peng did not have much of an advantage, but fortunately, he successfully grasped the key points.
In the Japanese team's matches, one player was also eliminated. World champion Yoshikawa Makoto suffered a 0-3 defeat in the first round, losing to Indian player Manav Thakkar. There were many mistakes, and he did not gain an advantage in the standstill rallies, failing to match Manav Thakkar's rhythm, playing somewhat awkwardly. Manav Thakkar is fast and powerful.
Tomokazu Harimoto swept Navis Shams 3-0, with scores of 11-5, 11-9, and 16-14. He won the first set steadily, but began to face challenges in the second set, continuously losing points in receiving serves and directly conceding several serves while trailing, achieving a reversal. The third set was even more fiercely contested to high scores.
Tomokazu Harimoto can be said to have performed well in adapting, adjusting his receiving serve in time to achieve results. In terms of strength, Tomokazu Harimoto is far superior, but he is not familiar with his opponent's spin, and his form has continued the good state from last week.
Daiki Shoji defeated Gnanasekaran 3-1, with scores of 8-11, 11-8, 11-3, and 11-8, reversing after losing the first set. Recently, Daiki Shoji's performance has been quite eye-catching. Koki Niwa defeated Picard 3-1 with scores of 11-6, 11-5, 3-11, and 11-7. He was somewhat distracted in the third set, but managed to regain his form in the fourth.
Among the top eight seeds, there have been successive upsets with eliminations. Huang Yancheng defeated the No. 3 seed Aruna 3-0, with scores of 11-5, 11-8, and 12-10. In this match, Aruna's performance was poor, with little quality in his offense and playing somewhat lazily.
Borel defeated the No. 8 seed Australian player Lu Wei 3-2, with scores of 11-9, 8-11, 11-3, 9-11, and 11-6. Both sides fought for five sets, with Lu Wei steadily improving in the past year or so. Borel played with great attacking power, engaging in some risky shots, and was also very fast.
In other matches, Guo Guanhong defeated Pei Huan 3-2, Simon Gauzy defeated Robles 3-2, and Wong Chun Ting defeated Harmeet Desai 3-0.