Tuesday 08 / October / 2024
Muscat: Brazil’s Hugo Calderano was crowned men’s singles champion while Japan’s Hina Hayata emerged winner in the women’s singles on an eventful day on Saturday as curtains came down on the WTT Contender Muscat 2023 at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex.
Calderano staged a dramatic comeback win against England’s Liam Pitchford 4-3 (6-11, 1-11, 11-8, 11-0, 11-4, 10-12, 11-7) to claim his third WTT Series title of the year.
In the women’s singles final, Hina Hayata stunned Adriana Diaz from Puerto Rico 4-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-5, 11-6). Hina, silver medallist at the recent Hangzhou Asian Games, dominated the final and showed an excellent performance against the Puerto Rican star.
In the men’s final, Pitchford showcased incredible form to set a blistering pace to start the final and looked untouchable, hammering the ball past his Brazilian counterpart with venom to race into a commanding two-game lead.
A player who has found himself 0-2 down on multiple occasions during the week, Calderano displayed fantastic resolve to overturn daunting scorelines against Jules Rolland in the round of 16 and Simon Gauzy in the semifinals, and was ready to mastermind another escape act in the final.
In a remarkable twist, Calderano not only managed to put his name on the scoreboard in game three, but would go on to win 22 of the following 26 points, including a sensational 11-0 display in game four, to completely reverse the tide in his favour.
Coming to grips with the dramatic shift in momentum, Pitchford couldn’t afford to let his disbelief get the better of him. Continuing to give his all, the unseeded Englishman fought admirably, saving championship point at 10-9 in game six to take the final down to the wire.
Trailing 7-2 in the decider, Pitchford refused to go away quietly, landing three points in a row to reduce the deficit to 7-5. Looking to disrupt his opponent’s rhythm, a timeout call came for Calderano, and it worked a treat as the ‘Thrill from Brazil’ picked up four of the next six points to add to his WTT Contender Durban and WTT Contender Doha successes.
Calderano said: “It was a very tough final game. I was able to disturb him after trailing two games.” He added: “The tournament was well organised and playing conditions were very good.”
Meanwhile, Germany’s pair of world No. 9 Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Patrick Franziska stole the limelight in the men’s doubles final as they beat the Swedish duo of Kristian Karlsson and Anton Kallberg 3-0 (13-11, 11-4, 11-9). Ng Wing Lam and Zhu Chengzhu from Hong Kong prevailed over Andrea Todorovic (Serbia) and Sibel Altinkaya (Turkey) 3-0 (5-11, 6-11, 4-11) to win the women’s doubles title.
Earlier on Friday, Chen Szu-Yu and LIN Yun-Ju from Chinese Taipei upset Japan’s Miwa Harimoto and Sora Matsushima 3-1 (7-11, 18-16, 8-11, 4-11) to clinch the mixed double’s title.
Later, top representatives of sponsors handed over the prizes to the winners in the presence of Abdullah Mohammed Bamakhalif, Chairman of Oman Table Tennis Association.
