Top seed Shidong struggles through

Top seed Lin Shidong needed five games to get past Benedikt Duda, as the German put in a spirited performance at Lusail Sports Arena before bowing out 8-11, 11-6, 11-8, 6-11, 11-6 in the Last 16 of the WTT Champions Doha.

The pair were neck and neck in the first game and shared the opening 16 points before Duda scored three consecutive winners. 

Shidong and Duda came out swinging in the second game, and the opening proceedings were an even affair, with the best point going to Duda. After a rally where the two were firing rockets at each other, it looked like Shidong had won it when he fired a cross-table shot that looked out of reach. But the 1.88m Duda lept to his left and sent the ball spinning past his opponent. 

World No.2 Shidong had to adjust if he was going to take the second game, and he did just that and found a rhythm where he was able to score five in a row. Shidong ’s new approach? Setting up powerful forearm strokes that he could hit right on the line. 

Shidong looked to be in the ascendancy when he took the third game and was leading the fourth 5-3. But Duda came back, scoring eight of the next nine points to set up the decider. 

Duda went 0-2 and 2-3 up in the final game as he looked to pull off the upset of the event, but Shidong had other thoughts and went on a rampage, hitting six in a row before taking it 11-6. 

Also in the men’s singles draw, World No.19 Shunsuke Togami took on World No.18 Jang Woojin. Korea’s Woojin edged the tight but thrilling match 11-7, 5-11, 11-6, 17-15.

The match will be remembered for the two playing out the longest game of the week, where Woojin needed five stabs at match point, and staved off two of Togami’s game points to avoid it going to five. 

But that’s not all. The pair decided against going for a tactical showdown and opted to smash the ball at each other for 40 minutes. 

The final game was littered with rallies where the pair were hitting long, arching forearm shots from way behind the table, leaping from side to side to salvage the point. Liking what they saw, at one point, both coaches stood to applaud their charges. 

Meanwhile, World No.13 Lin Yun-Ju is through to the quarterfinals following his spotless 11-3, 11-5, 11-6 victory over Dimitrij Ovtcharov.

Yun-Ju’s breath-taking performance puts him one step closer to his first WTT Champions title since winning in Frankfurt back in 2023.

It also marks his first win over the former World No.1 at a WTT Series event. The two players had battled only once previously on the WTT stage, with Ovtcharov dominating in the final at WTT Contender Doha 2021.

The German, who shocked fans with his spectacular triumph over second seed Hugo Calderano on Day 2, would have no such luck this time around, though.

Ovtcharov started the game well, initially leading Lin 1-3 in points. But Yun-Ju was only just getting warmed up for what was to come – the Chinese Taipei player, now in full swing, bagged the next ten points in a row to capture the first game 11-3, knocking the wind out of Ovtcharov’s sails.

And Yun-Ju would keep up the pressure in the second game, flying out of the gates with relentless topspin play, pulling ahead to a 9-1 point advantage. His German rival would manage to add a few points to his weary tally, but Lin eventually put a stop to that, sealing the game 11-5.

It was now or never for 37-year-old Ovtcharov, who desperately needed to find a way to prevent Lin from unleashing his red-hot attacking stokes. But try as he might, the latter always appeared to find a way to initiate the offensive, even in the guise of passive backspin push play, which in turn enabled Yun-Ju to utilise his unforgiving counter-topspin shots.

With the finish line now in sight, Yun-Ju continued to hit hard to the very last point, successfully whizzing a forehand topspin deep to his opponent’s backhand to claim the game, match and spot in the quarterfinals, stamped with an 11-6 scoreline.

Yun-Ju will be needing more of the same later today, as he is pitched against seventh seed Sora Matsushima, who overcame compatriot Yukiya Uda in an-all Japanese Round of 16 contest 11-9, 11-5, 11-7.

In the women’s singles, a match that looked to be heading only one way would end up doing a complete 180°, as Ying Han produced a stunning turnaround to reverse a two-game deficit against No.7 seed Chen Yi 4-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-2, 11-5.

All the early pressure came from Chen Yi, who asserted her dominance in game one to sail into a quick lead, and while the margin was tighter in the second, it was still the United States Smash 2025 runner-up who looked in command.

But in a crazy twist of fate, the match would completely flip on its head. From game three onward, it was the Ying Han show. Resilient in defence, the 42-year-old was equally as impressive on the offensive, catching Chen Yi out when she least expected it to kickstart one of the most stunning comebacks in WTT Champions history.

Locking up the third game 11-7, Ying Han would drop just seven points across the next two games to send Chen Yi packing, an unbelievable reversal from where the players sat two games in.

Further down the draw, we saw another five-game thriller as Miyu Nagasaki held off stern opposition from Sabine Winter 8-11, 11-4, 11-4, 8-11, 11-6.

Making headlines at the penultimate WTT Champions event of last season, Winter’s shock run to the women’s singles final in Montpellier captivated fans all over the world, and she put up another brave fight on Thursday evening.

But there would be no fairy tale for Winter this time, Nagasaki freezing the German out at the last to set up a quarterfinal clash with Kuai Man.