Quadri Aruna (Photo WTT)
The main draw is officially up and running at WTT Star Contender Ljubljana and it hasn’t taken long for the upsets to begin rolling in, with 17-year-old Kuo Guan-Hong upstaging Quadri Aruna 7-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-7 in the opening round.
Despite Guan-Hong outranking Aruna on paper, the odds still firmly sat in the Nigerian star’s favour, as one of the sport’s hardest hitters looked to build momentum just a week out from United States Smash.
The early signs looked promising for Aruna, who quickly opened up a two-game lead against a player 20 years his junior. But Guan-Hong has been making waves for all the right reasons in recent months, and the Chinese Taipei teenager showed exactly why he has everyone talking, striking three games on the bounce to complete a remarkable comeback win.
Guan-Hong, who has twice reached the round of 16 at WTT Star Contender level already in his young career, is now one win away from matching that effort in Ljubljana. No.8 seed Benedikt Duda awaits on Friday.
That wasn’t the only upset of the session as Manush Shah caused a stir with his 10-12, 12-10, 13-11, 11-13, 11-9 victory over Chen Junsong.
Making headlines with his astonishing run to the China Smash quarterfinals last year, Junsong was well-backed to go deep into the week here in Ljubljana. Despite saving three match points to force Manush to a decider, the latter player would eventually come out on top, as the Indian held his nerve at the end to see off Junsong 3-2.
Meanwhile, the men’s doubles title race has been blown wide open, with top seeds Felix Lebrun-Alexis Lebrun falling at the first hurdle.
The Lebrun brothers were undone by qualifiers Ryoichi Yoshiyama-Hiromu Kobayashi, who produced an outstanding display on Thursday morning to oust the Singapore Smash 2026 champions 16-14, 13-15, 12-10, 11-7.
The evening session brought more surprises with Tom Jarvis’ 11-9, 11-8, 11-7 victory over Anton Kallberg amongst the standout results.
Former WTT Champions runner-up Kallberg had never previously lost out to Jarvis on the international stage, but the former World No.12 was well beaten in their first WTT encounter.
Kallberg held a healthy 6-8 lead in the crucial opening game, but he’d pocket just one additional point from there as Jarvis struck back to take it 11-9. Game two was nip and tuck all the way to 8-8, but Jarvis would once again deliver in the business end of the game, doubling his advantage.
With the finish line in sight, the Englishman seized the moment, bringing it home in three to eliminate one of Europe’s top-ranked players from contention.
Another high-profile player from the European continent who didn’t enjoy the start they had envisioned was Jia Nan Yuan, as the French star suffered an opening round exit.
Despite Nan Yuan taking an early lead against qualifier Yoo Yerin, it was the 17-year-old Korean ace who stole the show across five pulsating games 10-12, 11-7, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9, as youth outshone experience on this occasion.
While Yoo Yerin successfully came through the women’s singles round of 64, the same couldn’t be said of Kim Nayeong, whose ambitions of a first WTT Star Contender title must wait for another day, following her shock 6-11, 7-11, 8-11 loss at the hands of Fan Shuhan.
Elsewhere, there was Slovenian heartbreak as Ana Tofant missed out on a big result with Xiaoxin Yang winning 8-11, 11-6, 11-4, 4-11, 11-6 and setting up a clash with No.2 seed Zhu Yuling.
