[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]The 2017 World Championships are moving into the later rounds as 5 days have completed.
WatchESPN is televising the first 2 tables live all day. One “big upset” that I saw today was Korea’s Lee Sangsu defeating World and Olympic Champion Zhang Jike of China. Zhang Jike is similar to Sweden’s Jan-Ove Waldner as they both have a lot of losses or near-losses to weaker players in smaller tournaments but are usually really tough to beat in Worlds and Olympics. However, Zhang Jike made a lot of uncharacteristic backhand mistakes and was slow in recovering when Lee Sangsu switched to his forehand. Zhang Jike looked a little tight in this match at times and he did say post-game his mental game was not good. Another upset was 13-year old Japanese phenom Tomokazu Harimoto upsetting teammate and double Rio Olympic medalist Jun Mizutani to advance to the men’s singles final 16.
Three Germans (European legends Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov and chopper Ruwen Filus) and four Chinese (defending World Champion and World #1 Ma Long, youngster Lin Gaoyuan, lefty Olympic and World Team Champion Xu Xin, and World Cup and Asian Champion Fan Zhendong) remain in the main draw of men’s singles. Many of the matches could go either way in the final 16.
The women’s singles is down to the final 4 with 3 Chinese (Ding Ning, Liu Shiwen, and Zhu Yuling) and the first Japanese singles medalist in 48 years, Miu Hirano. Hirano became the youngest ever winner of the Women’s World Cup last year in Philadelphia and defeated all 3 Chinese women she faced to win the Asian Championships this year in China. Lily Zhang had the best performance for US players making it to the final 32 in women’s singles and the quarterfinals in women’s doubles.
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