WTT Contender Tunis 2026...

[AJ Scott]

They just started the main draw an hour or two ago:
https://www.worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Matches&innerselectedTab=Scheduled&eventId=3236
[today's schedule].  This goes on till Sunday morning.  Then the World
Cup starts in Macao, China Sunday night.  4 tables are in play at the
WTT YouTube channel.  When looking at the schedule, pls. remember that
Tunisia is 5 hrs. ahead of us.

The top 5 men's seeds are Flavien Coton, Shinozuka Hiroto, Vladimir
Sidorenko, Feng Yi-shin and Joe' Seyfried (sounds almost like "jo-AY
say-FREED").  The top 5 women's seeds are Joo Cheonhui, Maria Xiao, Nina
Mittelham, Margaryta Pesotska and Yuan Wan.

Penholders...  The only 1 I see is on the women's side--Shan Xiaona of
Germany.

Pips-out players...  The only one on the men's side this week is Ylane
Batix of Cameroon, by way of France (long pips/bh).  His 1st round match
vs. Jules Rolland of France is about to start on Table 4.  On the
women's side, you have Yuan Wan (short pips/fh), Shan Xiaona (short
pips/both sides--only hits with the fh), YD Ghorpade (long pips/bh),
Idesawa Kyohka of Japan (long pips/bh, short pips/fh--her 1st round
match starts an hour from now on table 1), Kaneyoshi Yuuka (chopper),
Audrey Zarif (short pips/fh), Yang Xiaoxin (long pips/bh), Sutirtha
Mukherjee (short pips/fh), and Syndrela Das (short pips/fh--she's still
alive in the women's doubles only).

Americans...  Only one playing this week is Nandan Naresh, the US no. 4
man.  He's still alive in the mixed doubles draw.

Who to look out for?  I think all eyes should be on the new chopping
sensation out of Japan, 19-year old Kaneyoshi Yuuka (兼吉優花). She has
played just 4 WTT Feeder events and, from zero, she has shot up to 72nd
in the world in the rankings.  At this rate, she should make the top-20
by this fall if Japan continues to play her.  She played 4 events this
year starting last month and won 2 of them.  in one of them she didn't
win, she lost to the Thai chopblocker, Phatsaraphon Wonglakhon, who
thumped her 3-zip.  Her 1st round match is about to start in about 20
minutes from now on Table 3 and she's playing an Indian chopblocker, YD
Ghorpade. It'll be interesting to see how she fares in that match,
because I have always believed chopblockers have an advantage over
choppers and, as I just mentioned above, the one chopblocker she has
played, she lost badly to.  But Wonglakhon plays now like Sabine Winter,
so that loss was totally understandable.