The most popular city on the ITTF World Tour is Doha (QAT), hosting more events than any other venue, and host this week to the 23rd edition of the Qatar Open. A total of 263 players from 49 countries are in action; the top seeds:
● Men’s Singles:
1. Xin Xu (CHN) ~ 2011-12-14 Champion
2. Gaoyuan Lin (CHN)
3. Tomokazu Harimoto (JPN)
● Men’s Doubles:
1. Youngsik Jeoung/Sangsu Lee (KOR)
2. Masataka Morizono/Yuya Oshima (JPN) ~ 2017 Champions
3. Kwan Kit Ho/Chun Ting Wong (TPE)
● Women’s Singles:
1. Ning Ding (CHN) ~ 2013 Champion (and 2016 Olympic gold medalist)
2. Kasumi Ishikawa (JPN)
3. Shiwen Liu (CHN) ~ 2011-16-18 Champion
● Women’s Doubles:
1. Hina Hayata/Mima Ito (JPN)
2. Yingsha Sun/Manyu Wang (CHN) ~ Wang: 2017-18 winner with other partners
3. Honoka Hashimoto/Hitomi Sato (JPN)
● Mixed Doubles:
1. Chun Ting Wong/Hoi Kem Doo (TPE)
2. Sangsu Lee/Jihee Jeon (KOR)
3. Lubomir Pistej/Barbora Balazova (SVK)
This is the first year for the Mixed Doubles division, in addition to the seeded entries, superb teams from China – Xin Xu and Shiwen Liu – and Japan – Tomokazu Harimoto and Kasumi Ishikawa – are also in the field.
This is the first of the six Platinum-level tournaments on the ITTF Tour this season; look for results here.
