Hugo Calderano won bronze at the table tennis World Cup, held in Macau, China. He was looking for his second title, after becoming the first athlete from the Americas to lift the trophy last year, but ended up being defeated in the semi-finals by the Chinese Wang Chuqin, leader of the ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation) ranking, in the early hours of this Sunday (5) (Brasília time).
The world number one defeated the Brazilian, third in the ranking, by 4 sets to 1 (11/7, 11/3, 11/7, 6/11 and 12/10). More competitive, the other semi-final saw Japanese Sora Matsushima (number 8 in the ranking) win over Taiwanese Lin Yun-Ju (number 7) by 4 to 3 (7/11, 11/6, 12/10, 9/11, 5/11, 11/2 and 6/11).
Without competing for third place, Calderano and Lin Yun-Ju took bronze.
The Brazilian and Wang Chuqin had also faced each other in the semifinals of the last edition of the tournament, that time better for Calderano, who won 4-3 to reach the decision.
This year, the 29-year-old carioca’s campaign saw victories over Swede Kristian Karlsson and Czech Lubomir Jancarik in the group stage, over Japanese Shunsuke Togami in the round of 16 and over Frenchman Alexis Lebrun in the quarterfinals.
The semifinal started with an imposition from Chuqin, who soon opened 3 sets to 0. Calderano reacted in the next set and won 11 to 6. But the fifth set, despite being more competitive, also went to the Chinese, who closed 12 to 10.
Wang Chuqin and Sora Matsushima play for gold this Sunday morning.
