Hugo Calderano, 28, advanced to the semifinal and secured the first medal of a South American athlete in the World Table Tennis Championship. He defeated South Korean an Jaehyun in Doha, Qatar, 4 sets to 1, with partials from 11/4, 11/6, 9/11, 11/7 and 12/10.
Number 3 of the world, the Brazilian gave no chance to the opponent, who figures 17th in the ranking. The South Korean arrived Wednesdays after passing the Frenchman Felix Lebrun, who hit Calderano in the bronze dispute of the Paris Olympic Games.
“A lot of happiness to secure Brazil’s first medal in a table tennis World Cup. I know I still have a very important game tomorrow, so it’s important to control the emotions, but I’m very happy with the result,” he said after the victory.
Calderano achieves with his best result in worlds and an unprecedented medal for Brazilian sport. All semifinalists are awarded, so it secures at least the bronze, but will still have a chance to seek gold.
Hugo will return to the table this Saturday (24), at 11:40 am (Brasília), in search of the place in the decision of the World Cup. His opponent will be Chinese Liang Jingkun (5th), who eliminated the ranking Lin Shidong compatriot and leader in the Wednesday. The match will be broadcast by Cazétv and SporTV.
The other semifinal, also scheduled for Saturday, will have Chinese Wang Chuqin and Swedish Truls Moregard (7th). The decision is scheduled for Sunday (25).
This is the second historic feat that Hugo reaches in just over a month. In April, he became the first non -Chinese and non -European to win the World Cup title, with a historic campaign: he eliminated the then top 3 of the ranking, formed by Japanese Tomokazu Harimoto (3rd) and Chinese Wang Chuqin (2nd) and Lin Shidong (1st).
The world championship being played this week is an even more important tournament, and has been held every two years since 1926.
