WTT Contender Tunis 2025...

[AJ Scott]

This started yesterday and will go on thru Sunday:
https://worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Matches&eventId=3089&innerselectedTab=Scheduled
[tomorrow's schedule].  When looking at the schedule, remember that
Tunisia is 5 hrs. ahead of us.  Tables 1-4 will be livestreamed at
https://www.youtube.com/@WTTGlobal/streams.

Player list:
https://worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Player%20List&eventId=3089&innerselectedTab=Scheduled.
The top 5 men's seeds are Felix Lebrun, Darko Jorgic, Benedikt Duda,
Matsushima Sora and Dima Ovtcharov.  As for the women, the top 5 seeds
are all Japanese: Harimoto Miwa, Hayata Hina, Ohdo Satsuki, Kihara
Miyuu, and Nagasaki Miyu.  Harimoto Miwa recently made history and
became the Japanese no. 1 woman.  Now, for the 1st time in Japanese TT
history, a brother and sister are both Japanese no. 1s.  Actually,
there's a lot of siblings in the Game nowadays, so there's a lot of
history out there to be made. Anyhow, to stay at no. 1, Harimoto has to
keep winning, because Hayata is not so far behind.

Penholders...  The only one on the men's side that I'm aware of is the
top penholder in the world, Felix Lebrun of France.  I don't see any
penholders on the women's side.

Pips-out/anti-spin players...  For the men, I see Luka Mladenovic
(anti-spin/bh; eliminated in qualis today), Mattias Falck of Sweden
(short pips/fh), and two Chinese brothers (?), Sun Yang and Sun
Long--both choppers, both eliminated today.  On the women's side, it's
Kihara Miyuu (short pips/bh), Manika Batra (long pips/bh), Sreeja Akula
(long pips/bh), Liu Yangzi (short pips/bh), Satoh Hitomi (chopper),
Sabine Winter (anti-spin/bh), her doubles partner, Yuan Wan (short
pips/fh), Linda Bergstrom (chopper), YD Ghorpade (long pips/bh), Giulia
Takahashi (short pips/bh), Sutirtha Mukherjee (short pips/fh), Sasao
Asuka (short pips/bh), Audrey Zarif (short pips/fh), and Yang Huize of
China (long pips/bh?).  Yang takes on Zarif in the first singles match
tomorrow morning at 6:10 am on table 1.  And Sabine Winter, the top
European chopblocker, could meet Manika Batra, the top Asian
chopblocker, in the 2nd round of the main draw in coupla days. I'd love
to see that match-up

Americans...  There was one American playing earlier, Angel Naranjo of
PR, but he was eliminated in the qualis this morning.

Looking at the men's draw, Felix Lebrun and Matsushima Sora are on
opposite sides, so, if they were to meet, it would be in the final.  I'd
love to see that one, too.  I hope it happens...

Anyhow, there's one more WTT seniors event this week, WTT Feeder
Manchester (starting tomorrow morning), and that will be the last
seniors event before the World Championships next month, so everyone
will have a solid 3 weeks to train.  I hope Hugo Calderano or somebody
else from the rest of the world can give us fans another big surprise