Luka Mladenovic (Photo WTT)
The main draw at WTT Contender Taiyuan has kicked off in dramatic fashion, with men’s singles top seed Xiang Peng suffering a jaw-dropping 11-6, 11-5, 11-8 defeat at the hands of Luka Mladenovic.
Local star Peng was well backed to land his first singles title since going all the way at last year’s WTT Champions Incheon, and the World No.17 was handed a favourable draw on paper, opening his account against a player ranked 65 places lower in the standings.
However, matches aren’t decided on paper, and in an extraordinary twist of fate it was Mladenovic who stole the show. The Luxembourger went for broke, throwing the kitchen sink at Peng to eliminate the top seed in a little over 20 minutes, sending shockwaves around Taiyuan Binhe Sports Center in the process.
Leaving the table with a huge grin etched across his face, Luka Mladenovic had just blown the Men’s Singles title race wide open, and returns to action on Friday evening with Kristian Karlsson providing the opposition in the last 16.
Karlsson also booked his ticket to the second round in commanding fashion, putting three games past Hwan Bae without reply to win 11-7, 11-5, 11-3, but will have to be at his best in the next round with Mladenovic coming into that match hot.
There were a couple of unexpected exits over in the day’s women’s singles action, with No.4 seed Miyu Nagasaki the highest-ranked player to fall, losing out 21-14, 8-11, 2-11 to Wildcard defender Zhu Ziyu.
Two-time WTT Star Contender event champion Miyuu Kihara also succumbed to a round of 32 defeat in her showdown with Manika Batra taking the match 11-8, 10-12, 14-12, 9-11, 11-7, while there was a big win for 42-year-old qualifier Jie Li, who upstaged No.8 seed Zeng Jian in straight games 11-8, 11-9, 11-4.
