by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

Tomokazu Harimoto, the no.4 seed, overcame Sweden’s Kristian Karlsson, the no.7 seed, in a contest that ebbed and flowed; the 14 year old eventually prevailing in seven games (11-9, 7-11, 11-4, 9-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-6).

“It was a match where I was lucky; there were a lot of net balls that decided the points. I feel very tired; eventually I managed to win in the seventh game.” Tomokazu Harimoto

A testing encounter for Tomokazu Harimoto, it was even more testing for Hugo Calderano, the no.9 seed when facing Chinese Taipei’s 16 years old Lin Yun-Ju, the young man who started his journey four days earlier in the qualification tournament and had left a trail of destruction in his path.

The 21 year old Brazilian had to recover from a two games to nil and three games to two deficit to secure victory; eventually he succeeded by the very minimal margin (3-11, 10-12, 11-7, 14-12, 8-11, 11-9, 13-11).

“I am actually surprised to win this match. He is a very young player, he played very well, he has beaten many good players, I had many problems during the match. He caused me a great deal of difficultly but I am very happy that I managed to change the game and win.” Hugo Calderano

Tomokazu Harimoto and Hugo Calderano now meet in the penultimate round; the contest is scheduled for later in the day with an approximate start at 9.00am (local time).