MUSCAT: Omani duo of Luqman al Farsi and Badar al Jassasi moved to the main draw of the men’s doubles event after they beat their team-mates Ahmed al Riyami and Mohammed al Mutawa on Tuesday at the qualifications of men’s doubles event at WTT Contender Muscat 2023. The triumph meant Oman’s pair will meet Ho Kwan Kit and Wong Chun Ting from Hong Kong on Wednesday and the match will start at 19:45.
On the other hand, Oman’s doubles team of Muhanad al Balushi and Asad al Raisi confirmed their presence in the main draw and they will take on Hungarian pair of Bence Majros and Nandor Eceski on Wednesday. The match will begin at 15:45.
Post the match, Badar al Jassasi said that taking part in the WTT Contender Muscat 2023 is a good step for him to gain the desired experience. “I am very pleased in my attendance at this mega table tennis event. It means a lot for me to play against top ranking players and learn from their technical experience. Moreover, it is technically recommended to play matches with paddlers from different schools. Despite our results in the event, the technical learning outcomes are a lot and will work on how to utilise these outcomes on our performance,” he said.
The real action will begin at WTT Contender Muscat 2023 on Wednesday as the main draw competitions will commence by having last 32 matches in the men’s singles event. World No 4 Tomokazu Harimoto will meet Martin Allegro from Belgium while Lee Sang from South Korea will face Hairoto Shinozouka from Japan. Nigeria's Qudari Aruna will face Japan's Sora Matsushima in the same round while German’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov will take on OH Junsung from South Korea in a tight clash.
Women's top seed Hina Hayata of Japan will begin her campaign against Tatiana Kukulova from Slovakia. Italy's Giorgia Piccolin secured her ticket to the main draw after she overcame Katerina from Czech Republic and Barbora Balazova in the first and second rounds of the qualifications.
“I played against Barbora in WTT Star Contender in Bangkok and won the match. I expected the match will be tough against her and this happened. I took the advantage of the opponent’s mistakes and converted to the points and found proper solutions to end the match on a winning note. I am happy to win two matches in the qualifications and looking for more triumphs in the main draw,” Piccolin said.
Turkish paddler Sibel Altinkaya moved to the main draw after she stunned Won Xin Ru from Singapore 3-0 and Ayhika Mukhrajee from India by 3-0. Sibel will meet Jia Nan Yuan from France in a tough encounter.
India's Yashaswini Ghorpade sealed her berth to the main draw after she defeated French paddlers Oceane Guisnel and Camille Lutz in the qualifications. Ghorpade will meet Natalia Bajor of Poland on Wednesday in the last 32 round.
Speaking post the qualification match, she said that the qualifying round matches were very tough. “I worked very hard to move from the qualifications round. Now my full focus is on the main draw despite the tough expected matches as the chances will be very high to meet against top ranking paddlers,” she added.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
