by Ian Marshall, Editor
Fan Zhendong, the top seed and Ma Long, the no.11 seed, are both drawn in the top half of the draw; Japan’s Koki Niwa, the no.8 seed, is in the same quarter as Fan Zhendong but before such a duel can take place, both have most worthy potential fourth round adversaries.
Koki Niwa could well face Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov, the no.12 seed; for Fan Zhendong, there is a possible meeting with colleague, Liang Jingkun, the no.9 seed.
Equally, Ma Long can have no cause for complacency. He appears in the same quarter as Brazil’s Hugo Calderano, the no.7 seed; prior to that taking place he could well confront Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus, the no.18 seed and silver medallist in 1997 in Manchester. Furthermore, for Ma Long to reach the penultimate round a quarter-final meeting with either China’s Lin Gaoyuan, the no.3 seed or Japan’s Jun Mizutani, the no.13 seed, may await.
Meanwhile, in the lower half of the men’s singles draw, the mouth-watering contest is the possible quarter-final meeting between Japan’s 15 year old Tomokazu Harimoto and Germany’s 38 year old Timo Boll, the no.5 seed. However, before that can happen, Tomokazu Harimoto may well face Hong Kong’s Wong Chun Ting, the no.14 seed; Timo Boll, could oppose Korea Republic’s Jang Woojin, the no.10 seed.
Intriguing contests, to complete the draw, Korea Republic’s Lee Sangsu, the no.6 seed and silver medallist in Düsseldorf faces a possible quarter-final clash against China’s Xu Xin, the no.2 seed.
Notably, Lee Sangsu in order to make that confrontation a reality, may well have to overcome Sweden Mattias Falck, the no.16, for Xu Xin the potential fourth round adversary is England’s Liam Pitchford, the no.15 seed.
