{"id":10436,"date":"2026-03-12T08:07:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/?p=10436"},"modified":"2026-03-12T08:07:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:07:41","slug":"calderano-exacts-revenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/calderano-exacts-revenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Calderano exacts revenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Less than two weeks after losing to Chen Yuanyu at the Singapore Smash, Brazilian Hugo Calderano got his revenge by knocking the Chinese star out of the first round at WTT Champions Chongqing, winning 11-8, 7-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Calderano was the World No.2 when Yuanyu dumped him out of Singapore Smash. By the time they stepped into Bloomage Biotech Biohyalux ECM Arena, the Brazilian had fallen to World No.4.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And while Calderano looked comfortable in the first game, Yuanyu started to grow into the match and once again became a thorn in the side of the 10-time WTT Series title winner. After levelling the match, Yuanyu dominated the third game, but a string of points saw Calderano drag it back to 9-9. Serving for the second game, Yuanyu\u2019s fans cheered him over the line as he moved to within one game of another upset over his Brazilian rival.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Calderano was staring defeat right in the face when down 7-8 in the fourth game, but picked himself up to fire off four winners and send the match to a deciding fifth game. Calderano dominated the early stages of the fifth game, and when 5-2 up, looked home and dry. But with the backing of the home fans, Yuanyu got the scores to 6-6. But that was all Yuanyu would contribute to the final chapter of this new rivalry, as Calderano scored all of the match\u2019s remaining points to move to the next round.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Hugo Calderano vs Chen Yuanyu | MS R32 | #WTTChongqing 2026\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zDHGMaqA9QY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, Australia\u2019s Nicholas Lum got his first WTT Champions win at the sixth time of asking, beating Darko Jorgic 11-8, 11-8, 12-10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lum was a late addition to the tournament, replacing Benedikt Duda, who was unable to travel. But Lum came with the mindset that he was not just there to make up the numbers, and proved that early on against World No.16 Jorgic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The World No.42 struggled at the beginning of the opening game, but found his groove and recovered from going 2-6 down to win it. Lum was now in the ascendancy, and after going 3-0 up, he held off a surge that saw Jorgic convert four consecutive winners to take the lead, and regained the lead, setting up three Game Points and taking Game Two at the second attempt.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The third game was a must-win match for Jorgic, and he went all-out attack. Ahead 5-9, the match looked destined to go to at least four games, but Lum hit three at Jorgic, prompting the Slovenian to use his time-out. He conceded again when he returned to the table, but got the next one for his first Game Point of the match. But Lum had confidence on his side and hit three more winners, taking Match Point after owning seven of the last eight winners.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lum\u2019s victory comes just weeks after he pushed Simon Gauzy all the way in their Round of 64 tie in Singapore, with the 20-year-old saving two match points before the Frenchman eventually got over the line. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yukiya Uda also booked his slot in the following round, after beating Omar Assar 11-3, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9. That loss extends Assar\u2019s losing streak at this level, with the Egyptian having only made the Round of 16 once in 17 attempts. His only win at this level came at WTT Champions Frankfurt three years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the women&#8217;s singles, Wang Yidi was made to work for her spot in the Round of 16 as Hana Goda took the opening game and then saved match point before missing her shot at forcing a decider, Goda loss the match 6-11, 7-11, 11-4, 11-13.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite losing this match, the 18-year-old Goda is proving herself to be a difficult player to come up against, having recently given former World No.1 Zhu Yuling a tough match at WTT Champions Doha. At United States Smash last year, Goda took the current World No.1 Sun Yingsha all the way to five games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Goda took the first game in spectacular fashion. With the scores level at 4-4, she hit five in a row to put herself in the driving seat. She got over the line just moments later to draw first blood and win her first-ever game against Wang.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yidi dominated the next two games, but Goda was determined to force a decider, and you could feel the tension in the arena build when the Egyptian fought back to 9-9. Goda refused to go down and saved match point before earning, but ultimately failing to convert, her game point.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite her resilience, Goda was undone by a power-driving forearm that clipped the net, and gave Yidi another shot at match point, and this time she didn\u2019t miss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Hana Goda vs Wang Yidi | WS R32 | #WTTChongqing 2026\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sdbmXyV10DE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p> No.7 seed Chen Yi took down Kim Nayeong for her first-ever victory at a WTT Champions Chongqing event. winning 11-4, 12-14, 11-5, 11-6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After dominating the opening game, Yi missed two game points and had to save two of Nayeong\u2019s as the chance of moving one step closer to the Round of 16 slipped away from the Chinese star. But the 21-year-old quickly went about righting those wrongs and again started dominating the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She flew out into Game Three like a rocket, hitting seven winners, and stormed to a 7-2 advantage. From there, she didn\u2019t surrender the lead once for the rest of the match as she cruised into the next round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Australia\u2019s Yangzi Liu pulled off a remarkable straight games 11-5, 11-9, 11-9 win over World No.11 Sabine Winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Winter has been in fantastic form in recent months, climbing from outside the Top 50 to being on the brink of breaking the Top 10 for the first time in her career. Her recent results have seen her make the semifinals of Singapore Smash 2026 and the final of WTT Champions Montpellier 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 23-year-old Liu has a career-best World Ranking of 25, which she reached back in 2024, and before today, she had lost all her WTT matches this season. However, heading into today\u2019s match, she did have a 100 per cent record over Winter, having won their only clash 4-1 to lift the Women&#8217;s Singles title at WTT Feeder Dusseldorf 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As soon as this match started, it was the young Liu who looked like the woman in form, taking the opening game in style by firing off six winners. She then rode that wave straight into the nest game and took a commanding 4-1 lead. While Winter battled to remain in the game, Liu constantly had an answer to everything the German was throwing at her. The Australian retook the lead at 9-8 and never looked back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As had been the case throughout this match, Liu\u2019s strong start to each game put her in the driving seat early on and allowed her to dictate the tempo, and that\u2019s exactly what happened again in Game Three.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Liu was 6-2 up before Winter was able to force her way back in, closing the gap to 8-7 before levelling it at 9-9 as whispers of a comeback started to swirl. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Less than two weeks after losing to Chen Yuanyu at the Singapore Smash, Brazilian Hugo Calderano got his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-10436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-table-tennis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hudo-Calderano.jpg",1920,1127,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hudo-Calderano-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hudo-Calderano-300x176.jpg",300,176,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hudo-Calderano-768x451.jpg",640,376,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hudo-Calderano-1024x601.jpg",640,376,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hudo-Calderano-1536x902.jpg",1536,902,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hudo-Calderano.jpg",1920,1127,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hudo-Calderano-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hudo-Calderano-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/category\/newsbeat\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hudo-Calderano.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10436"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10450,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10436\/revisions\/10450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}