2019 ITTF World Tour Platinum German Open
Host player SHAN Xiaona missed a great opportunity to reach Women’s Singles semi-finals at the 2019 ITTF World Tour Platinum German Open as she had 3:0 against current World no.12 FENG Tianwei. Suported by her fans in ÖVB-Arena Bremen SHAN played fantastic until the end of fourth game but Singapore’s player managed to survive (12:10) responding by by four games in a row – 4:3 (6:11 6:11 9:11 12:10 11:5 11:5 11:2).
Actual World no.96 SHAN returned to the table tennis ten months ago – after break caused by childbirth – has played one of her best ITTF World Tour events since that.
World no. 7 Mima ITO (Japan) beat YANG Xiaoxin (Monaco) in five games to set clash with FENG while other two quarter-finals were held between four China’s representatives: SUN Yingsha (World no.6) prevailed against CHEN Xingtong (no.13) 4:2 while WANG Yidi (no. 38) upset WANG Manyu (no.4) 4:3. WANG Yidi now targets her second 2019 TTF World Tour title after Hong Kong’s one.
Patrick FRANZISKA lost his quarter-final match a day after sensational win over World no.4 LIN Gaoyuan. Current World no.15 was beaten by no. 23 JEOUNG Youngsik 4:2 (8:11 11:6 7:11 11:8 11:7 11:8). Korean will challenge top seed China’s XU Xin who overcame his compatriot YAN An in six games. Second semi-final will be between two China’s players FAN Zhendong and LIANG Yingkun no.2 and no. 7 seeds respectively. FAN defeated German star Timo BOLL in five games.
FRANZISKA will improve his position in the Race to the World Tour Grand Final (December 12-15) moving from no.11 to no.9 while BOLL moves one place up to get 14th spot. Both won 100 points in the current standings. Sixteen best ranked players will secure their places for event to be held in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou with only one tournament left (Austria Open).
