Aussie Update – World Table Tennis Contender Slovenia

Seven Australians are in action at the World Table Tennis Contender event in Slovenia, with five successfully navigating their way through a tough qualification stage.

Women's Singles and Women's Doubles Qualification Round

Yangzi Liu has advanced through to the Women's Singles Main Draw. Liu sailed through qualification without dropping a game, securing 3-0 victories over higher ranked Slovenian local Sara Tokic, France's Pauline Chasselin and Mateja Jeger from Croatia.

The 19-year-old Aussie young gun will now face India's Sreeja Akula in the Round of 32 at 8.10pm local time (6.10am AEDT Friday 12 November).

Liu has also advanced to the Round of 16 in the Women's Doubles with Aussie number 1 Min Hyung Jee. The duo secured a convincing 3-0 victory over the Croatian team in the second round of the qualifiers and will now come up against the Hungarian duo Bernadett Balint and Mercedes Nagvaradi tonight.

Jee narrowly missed out on a spot in the Women’s Singles Main Draw herself after two resounding victories in qualification, before a 1-3 defeat to multiple World and European medallist, Germany's Sabine Winter in round three.

Fellow Aussie, and Paralympic Champion, Qian Yang also won two matches in qualification before falling to Sweden's Christina Kallberg 1-3, after a nail biting 16-14 first game.

Men's Singles and Men's Doubles

Four Australian's were entered into the Men's Singles including juniors Nicholas Lum, who came into the event off the back of winning four medals in WTT Youth Contender events in the past three weeks, and Finn Luu. They were joined by Xavier Dixon and Dillion Chambers. 

Dixon led the way, recording a career best victory over Commonwealth Games gold medallist Almaraj Anthony of India in round 1, before bowing out against Croatia’s Filip Cipin in round 2.

Lum received a COVID-19 walkover in round 1, but couldn’t make inroads against strong German Steffan Mengel in round 2.

Luu made a fast start against Belgium’s Martin Allegro, before going down 1-3.

Chambers fought back from 0-2 down to draw level at 2-2 against Iran’s Amin Ahmadian before eventually falling in five games.

However, over in the Men's Doubles, the pairing of Dixon and Chambers advanced to the Main Draw after winning their two matches (3-0, 3-2). They'll next face England's Samuel Walker and Belarussian Aleksandr Khanin. Lum and Luu received a walkover in round 1, but the combination of French brothers Alexis and Felix Lebrun saw them defeated in round 2.

Mixed Doubles

Lum and Jee also have a shot in the Mixed Doubles, with the duo receiving direct entry into the Main Draw where they’ll come up against Belarus pair Aleksandar Khanin and Katsiaryna Baravok in the Round of 16 tonight.

Tune into all the action from Slovenia on WTT YouTube page here.

Full results of the WTT Slovenia event can be found here