Hugo Calderano stunned World No. 1 Fan Zhendong to reach the WTT Champions Incheon final, while Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu set up an all-Chinese women's singles final.
INCHEON, South Korea, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Hugo Calderano pulled off an impressive upset at the WTT Champions Incheon here on Saturday when he beat World No. 1 Fan Zhendong 4-2 in the men's singles semifinals.
The top seed got off to a bad start against Calderano, losing three sets in a row, 11-6, 11-8, 11-9. Despite pulling back in the following two - 11-6, 11-8, Fan failed to turn the tide and went down 11-5 in the sixth set.
"It was really important to start 3-0 up. It's really hard for anyone to come back from 3-0 down. But of course, there's one reason why he's one of the best in the world, so I know he could come back, and I just had to keep cool, keep fighting, keep playing my level, good tactics and good variation," Calderano said after the victory.
In the men's final, Calderano will take on second-seeded Chinese paddler Liang Jingkun, who edged past his compatriot and third seed Ma Long 4-3 (11-5, 11-8, 11-13, 5-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-7).
"After notching two wins at the beginning, I sort of started to leave things to chance and luck, and as a result, I lost the following three sets. Then I quickly adjusted my mentality and fought hard point by point and finally sealed the victory," Liang said.
On women's part, China's Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu defeated their compatriots Wang Yidi and Chen Meng respectively to set up an all-Chinese women's singles final. Sun walked away from Wang Yidi 4-0 (11-9, 11-9, 12-10, 11-7), while second-seeded Wang Manyu bested fourth seed Chen 4-2 (11-5, 13-15, 7-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-3).
"I played normally throughout the match and dealt well with the pace and the drop points. I will go all out and show the best of myself in the final match," Sun said.
In the quarterfinals contested earlier, the top-ranked Sun edged past Japan's fifth seed Hina Hayata 3-2, while Wang notched an easy win over Austria's Sofia Polcanova 3-0 in only 21 minutes to set up the semifinal showdown against Sun.
The world's top players gathered in Incheon for the first WTT Champions Series event on the 2024 calendar, which offers 300,000 U.S. dollars in prize money. The winners will also earn 1,000 ITTF world ranking points each. ■
