by Simon Daish
Four different nations will be represented in the semi-finals of the Men’s Singles competition: Nigeria, Thailand, Scotland and France.
With the backing of the home crowd Quadri Aruna will be hoping for a strong performance when he meets Supanut Wisutmaythangkoon in the top half of the draw while the other semi-final tie pits Gavin Rumgay against Antoine Hachard – a new name will be added to the list of Nigeria Open Men’s Singles winners, but who will the honour fall to?
While the identity of the Women’s Singles Champion is yet to be determined, one fact that has already been set in stone is that the title will be presented to China with all four of the event’s semi-finalists representing the country.
The first semi-final encounter sees Wei Wensheng do battle with Guo Yan before Sun Chen and Fan Siqi take to the table in the other penultimate round fixture. China has never been represented in an ITTF Challenge Series Women’s Singles final, that statistic is set to change but which of the country’s players will leave with the prize?
Fan Siqi and Guo Yan will partner up later in the day for the Women’s Doubles final where they will meet Sun Chen and Qi Fenjie while the Men’s Doubles sees the French duo of Alexandre Robinot and Joe Seyfried take on Hungary’s Tamas Lakatos and Finland’s Benedek Olah.
