Germany’s Ruwen FILUS and men’s doubles pair Alvaro ROBLES from Spain and Ovidiu IONESCU from Romania both claimed silver medals at the World Table Tennis Star Contender Doha 2021.
Ruwen FILUS clinched silver following a 4-2 defeat by Japan’s Tomokazu HARIMOTO (11-9 11-9 12-14 11-5 7-11 11-8) in the men’s singles at the Lusail Sports Arena on 13 March. Meanwhile Spain’s Alvaro ROBLES and Romania’s Ovidiu IONESCU lost 3-2 (2-11 11-6 11-8 8-11 11-3) to top seeds from the Republic of Korea LEE Sangsu LEE and partner JEOUNG Youngsik.
In the women’s singles ETTU President Igor LEVITIN presented the medals to the finalists. Japanese no.1 seed Mima ITO emerged with her second women’s singles title of the WTT Middle East Hub beating Singapore’s FENG Tianwei no. 5 seed 4-1 in the final (10-12 12-10 11-7 11-8 11-6).
Chinese Taipei’s LIN Yun-Ju and CHENG I-Ching emerged victorious in the mixed doubles final fighting back from a one-game deficit to beat the Republic of Korea’s LEE Sangsu and JEON Jihee 3-1 (10-12 11-8 11-9 11-6). This marks LIN and CHENG’s second title success in consecutive weeks winning the mixed doubles trophy at last week’s WTT Contender event.
In the women’s doubles final Jeon and teenage sensation SHIN Yubin 16 combined to devastating effect seeing off Japanese no.1 seeds Kasumi ISHIKAWA and Miu HIRANO (11-6 12-10 11-8).
Ruwen Filus’ silver marked the end of a remarkable winning streak. After four successes against opponents who were much higher in the world rankings Fulda’s defensive ace suffered defeat in the match against HARIMOTO after a great fight in the showdown of the tournament. The number one seed repeated the top class quality game against Filus as he did yesterday in the semifinals against Germany’s Dimitrij OVTCHAROV who is 10th in the World rankings and lost 4: 2.
