2020’s second Platinum World Tour event the Qatar Open begins this week. In the capital Doha the 25th anniversary event will run from March 3rd and conclude with the final matches on March 8th.
Qatar Open - Via ITTF Flickr
The singles winners will be taking home US$44,000. 146 competitors will be competing for the men’s singles title headed by the world number 2 Fan Zhendong. The 23-year-old is at the top of a very strong pack closely followed by his Chinese team mates Xu Xin, Ma Long, Lin Gaoyuan. Ma Long is the defending champion winning the 2019 event and has won the event a record 4 times. Fan Zhendong has reached the final 3 times but only won once in 2018. Xu Xin is in fantastic form with an 100% win rate in 2020 World Tour events.
The non-Chinese challengers include Japanese teenage sensation Tomokazu Harimoto, Brazilian maestro Hugo Calderano and World Championship finalist Mattias Falck. Could one of these players become the first non-Chinese winner since Vladimir Samsonov in 2015?
The women’s singles event is headed by world number 1 and 2017 Qatar Open winner Chen Meng. Chen Meng also has a 100% win rate this year having won all her matches from 5 events in 2020. Liu Shiwen is a noticeable absence having won in 2011, 2016 and 2018 and was runner up last year. However, the rest of China’s top women will be there including Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, Zhu Yuling, Ding Ning, Chen Xingtong, Wang Yidi, and He Zhuojia. Trying to disrupt the Chinese party is teenager Mima Ito, Feng Tianwei, Kasumi Ishikawa and Miu Hirano.
Qatar Open - Via ITTF Flickr
The singles winners will be taking home US$44,000. 146 competitors will be competing for the men’s singles title headed by the world number 2 Fan Zhendong. The 23-year-old is at the top of a very strong pack closely followed by his Chinese team mates Xu Xin, Ma Long, Lin Gaoyuan. Ma Long is the defending champion winning the 2019 event and has won the event a record 4 times. Fan Zhendong has reached the final 3 times but only won once in 2018. Xu Xin is in fantastic form with an 100% win rate in 2020 World Tour events.
The non-Chinese challengers include Japanese teenage sensation Tomokazu Harimoto, Brazilian maestro Hugo Calderano and World Championship finalist Mattias Falck. Could one of these players become the first non-Chinese winner since Vladimir Samsonov in 2015?
The women’s singles event is headed by world number 1 and 2017 Qatar Open winner Chen Meng. Chen Meng also has a 100% win rate this year having won all her matches from 5 events in 2020. Liu Shiwen is a noticeable absence having won in 2011, 2016 and 2018 and was runner up last year. However, the rest of China’s top women will be there including Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, Zhu Yuling, Ding Ning, Chen Xingtong, Wang Yidi, and He Zhuojia. Trying to disrupt the Chinese party is teenager Mima Ito, Feng Tianwei, Kasumi Ishikawa and Miu Hirano.