The World Table Tennis (WTT) Champions Macao 2023 tournament kicked off yesterday with the first matches of the Round of 32.
In a day with some interesting and highly disputed matches in both the women’s and men’s groups, Japan’s Mima Ito and Kasumi Ishikawa played respectively against Elizabeta Samara from Romania and Nina Mittelham from Germany.
In the men’s group, Hiroto Shinozuka took on Hong Kong’s Wong Chun Ting, and Alexis Lebrun from France battled Sweden’s Truls Möregårdh.
In the last encounter of the day, Hugo Calderano from Brazil battled against Omar Assar of Egypt for a place in the Round of 16.
Strong performance was shown from the start by Koreans Jang Woojin and Lee Sang Su which led to them winning their respective matches against Swedish Kristian Karlsson and the Japanese Yukiya Uda.
At the same time, Liu Yangzi (Australia) and Han Ying (Germany) also started on the upper-hand beating, respectively, Dina Meshref (Egypt) and Yu Fu (Portugal).
The tournament continues today for the second day of the Round of 32. Renato Marques
