by Simon Daish
The finale to the Women’s Doubles competition will be the opening act of the day as China’s Chen Xingtong and Sun Yingsha meet face-to-face with Japan’s Hina Hayata and Mima Ito – with the top performers on the 2018 ITTF World Tour taking on the top seeded pair of the competition, this should have all the makings of an epic clash to start off the day.
Following on from the Women’s Doubles final is the first singles battle of the day as Xu Xin and Liang Jingkun, both representing China, fight it out for the Men’s Singles trophy.
Unseeded and thus required to compete in the qualification rounds, Liang Jingkun has enjoyed a fantastic run in Linz with main draw victories over no.9 seed Wong Chun Ting, fellow qualifier Lin Yun-Ju, no.11 seed Hugo Calderano and most impressively top seed Fan Zhendong. Liang Jingkun faces second seed Xu Xin at the final hurdle – who will prevail in their first head-to-head encounter?
Fifth seed meets sixth seed in the closing fixture of the Women’s Singles draw as Chen Meng and Wang Manyu take to the table in the second all-China contest of the day.
Meeting for the first time on the world stage in early 2017, the two have met on six occasions in total with both athletes sharing three wins apiece. Chen Meng emerged victorious against Wang Manyu last week at the Seamaster 2018 Swedish Open but the latter player will be determined to avenge that defeat, especially as it would see her lift the trophy for the second year running in Linz.
Rounding off the day’s action is the Men’s Doubles final. Three times finalists on this year’s ITTF World Tour but still searching for their first gold medal of 2018 – will the Japanese duo of Masataka Morizono and Yuya Oshima enjoy better luck at the fourth attempt when they do battle with Korea Republic’s Jeoung Youngsik and Lee Sangsu?
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