A few hours after overcoming the South Korean An Jaehyun, Hugo Calderano beat the Swede Mattias Falck by 3 sets to 1 on Saturday afternoon (15th) (3/11, 11/3, 11/9 and 12/10), and qualified for the semi-finals of the WTT Star Contender in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It is the second consecutive year that the Brazilian reaches this stage of the important tournament that is part of the world table tennis circuit.
Still on the pace of a doubles round, Hugo did not have a good start against Falck, world runner-up in 2019. The Swede dominated the actions of the first set and won by 11/3. The Brazilian adjusted his game on the scoreboard from the second half onwards and returned the score to his opponent, also winning by 11/3 and drawing the duel.
Falck asserted himself again at the beginning of the third set to take a 4/0 lead. However, Hugo recovered and managed to take the lead. However, he opened a good lead and, despite wasting three set points, closed the set at 11/9. In the fourth set the Swede took control of the score and was ahead 9/6. Hugo managed to turn the tables and won by 12/10.
Hugo Calderano is in sixth place in the world table tennis rankings, while Mattias Falck is in 30th place. Despite being the third best in his country in the rankings, Falck was passed over for the Swedish call-up and will not be at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Your country will be present with Anton Kallberg, Truls Moregard Kristian Karlsson. Hugo, however, will lead the Brazilian team.
Sequence
With the victory against Falck, Calderano will face the South Korean Cho Daeseong (25th) in the semifinal of the WTT Star Contender in Ljubljana. The duel will take place this Sunday (16th), at 10am (Brasilia time). If he were to progress to the final, the Brazilian will return to the rankings a few hours later, on Sunday at 2pm, to face the Frenchman Felix Lebrun (5th) or the Japanese Tomokazu Harimoto (11th).
This is the second consecutive time that Hugo Calderano reaches the semi-finals of the WTT Star Contender in Ljubljana, a competition that awards the champion 700 points in the world ranking. Last year, at this stage, he fell to China’s Fan Zhendong, the current two-time world champion, 3 sets to 1. Fan defeated his compatriot Wang Chuqin in the final and became champion.
Source: Terra
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