World No.1 Serena Williams has pulled out of the Qatar Total Open due to a flu.
Serena said this in a news released by the organisers of the competition “l unfortunately have to withdraw from the Qatar Total Open as I have come down with the flu and do not feel 100 percent.
I need to take this time to recover but I do look forward to returning to Doha and seeing my fans soon.”
The 21-time Grand Slam Champion will not be the only high profile name missing the tournament, as Russian Maria Sharapova has also pulled out of the competition due to an arm injury.
Tournament director Saad Al Mohannadi said the competition “will miss the presence of the World No. 1 Serena Williams” but the tournament would still be “keenly contested”.
Serena Williams photo credit: Yann Caradec https:::creativecommons.org:licenses:by-sa:2.0:legalcode
Big names like Simona Halep, Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber, Garbine Muguruza, Agnieszka Radwanska are all expected to participate in the tournament that begins February 21st.
Belarusian Vladimir SAMSONOV has sensationally won his 26th ITTF World Tour title at the GAC Group 2015 World Tour Super Series Qatar Open.
The 38 year old responded to China’s MA Long closing in on his record after he won the Kuwait Open last week, by showing vintage form to defeat Olympic bronze medalist Dimitrij OVTCHAROV 11-9, 11-8, 15-13, 6-11, 11-9 in the final.
This was a dramatically different SAMSONOV who lost in the opening round of last week’s Kuwait Open to turn around his form to taste Qatar Open success, just as he did in 2003 when he was world number one.
“I was down in the first game and won, but I think more importantly I was 4-8 behind in the third game and won; that was the crucial game in the match” stated SAMSONOV.
“Dima (OVTCHAROV) and myself, we know each other so well, we both play for the same club in the Russian League. I wanted to win and I am really happy that I won. I won in 2003 but I didn’t expect to win this year; Qatar is always a strong tournament and this year I played well from the very start.”
The number seven seed, Romanian Elizabeta SAMARA shocked the strong women’s field to become the women’s champion.
Samsonov smashes his way to this 26th ITTF World Tour title in Qatar.
The 25 year old from Constanta, Romania, marked a spectacular recovery from knee surgery in November to upset the number three seed HAN Ying (GER) in the final: 11-6, 12-10, 11-6, 11-9.
“During the match, my coach just told me to be calm, to relax and not to panic because I had never beaten HAN before” stated SAMARA.
“This victory means a lot to me, as it is my first Super Series title and my third World Tour victory overall. Plus my first one since my knee operation!”
Marcos FREITAS (POR) and Andrej GACINA (CRO) won the men’s doubles title, after beating the Brazilian pair of Hugo CALDERANO and Gustavo TSUBOI 11-3, 11-5, 12-10. The Brazilians have made history by becoming the first ever Latin Americans to reach an ITTF World Tour Super Series Final.
Hong Kong’s JIANG Huajun and TIE Yana were the women’s doubles champions. The Hong Kong pair who won their fourth World Tour title here in Doha defeated Singapore’s LIN Ye and ZHOU Yihan 11-3, 11-9, 11-8 in the final.
Benjamin BROSSIER of France and Romania’s Bernadette SZOCS won the respective under 21 men’s Singles and under 21 women’s singles titles to close out the gold medals at the GAC Group 2015 World Tour Super Series Qatar Open.
The next stop on the GAC Group ITTF World Tour is the Nigerian Open in Lagos on March 10 and the German Open in Bremen on March 18.
Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri helped GD Toledos to retain this year’s Portuguese table tennis Cup concluded at the weekend in Porto.
Quadri, who was bundled out in the quarterfinal of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Africa Senior Championship in Cairo, Egypt last month was in superb form at the two-day tournament without dropping a match.
Playing from the preliminary stage to the semifinal, Quadri supported by his Portuguese teammates showed class and this was reflected in their semifinal tie against Juncal, a match which they won 3-0.
However, they were faced with a Herculean task in the final as they were pitched against fans’ favourite, Sporting Lisbon.
Aruna Quadri with GD Toledos teammates after the Portuguese Cup title
As the biggest of their campaign in the tournament, Quadri team once again rose to the occasion despite dropping a game, they ensured that the cup remained with GD Toledos, as they won 3-1 to win the title for the third consecutive times.
An excited Quadri believes the success would surely spur him on for this week’s Kuwait Open.
“I feel so great winning the title again and team work materialized in delivering the Portuguese Cup once again. I have won the title thrice in a row and retaining the title again has increased my confidence for Qatar and Kuwait Opens.
I think this weekend matches in the Portuguese Cup has prepared for the next coming pro tours due to the fact that I played some tough matches,” he enthused.
Meanwhile, the defeat suffered in the men’s singles at the ITTF Africa Senior Championship held in Egypt has adversely affected the fortune of the ITTF Star Player in the February world rating released by the world table tennis ruling body at the weekend.
Aruna Quadri with GD Toledos teammates after the Portuguese Cup title
For bowing to Egypt’s Mohamed El-Beiali, Quadri dropped from 30 to 32 in the latest ranking while his conqueror improved in his rating from 195 to 179 in the world.
Also, for emerging as winner of the ITTF Africa Senior Championship, Egypt’s Omar Assar is ranked 43; a position which exceeds his previous best of 57 in July 2013.
The Oyo State-born athlete admitted that the slide in his world rating would help him to continue to work hard.
“My ranking going down is a wake-up call although I felt disappointed and at the same time I am happy that I gained more additional point to my ranking bonus points. It is a sign that I must work harder than before and I am finally happy that African is having two players in top 50 with Egypt’s Omar Assar now rated 43,” he said.
Aruna Quadri with GD Toledos teammates after the Portuguese Cup title
As the Kuwait Open, one of major series in the ITTF World Tours serves off on Wednesday February 11; Quadri will be campaigning from the qualifiers as the world’s top 16 will be competing from the main draw having been seeded by the organizers of the championship.
However, the 26-year-old Nigerian says he would be happy to exceed his previous outing at the tournament in Kuwait.
“I will be very happy if I can surpass my last year’s performance in the pro tour. I never qualified to the main draw in any major series of the ITTF World Tour and I will be glad if I can break that record in Kuwait and Germany Opens this year,” he added.
World No.1 and top seed Novak Djokovic cruised into the Quarter final of the Qatar Exxonmobil Open with a 6-2,6-1 win over Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky on wednesday.
The Serb who is making his debut at this tournament won 29 of his 34 points(85%) when his first serve went in,and saved all three break points he saved.
Djokovic will face 7th seeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic who defeated Nikoloz Basiashvili of Georgia in the second round.
Fourth seed David Ferrer needed just 78mins to see off fellow country man Fernando Verdasco 6-3,6-2 and will now face German Dustin Brown who also posted a 7-6(9),6-4 win over compatriot Jan-Lennard Struff.
If the Serb and the Spaniard both win their quarter-final fixture they would be on course for a Semi final clash in Qatar.
The superb outing by Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri could not prevent him from being shown the exit in the men’s singles of the ongoing International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour tagged: “Qatar Open holding in Doha after the Nigerian lose narrowly to Portugal’s Joao Monteiro.
The experience of Portugal’s Monteiro was what saved the France-based Portuguese from the brink of defeat against Quadri.
For every point that Monteiro won against Quadri, the Nigerian made the Portuguese to work for as Monteiro won the first game at 11-7. But an improved Quadri leveled up with an 11-9 win in the second game.
The next two matches went in favour of the Portuguese at 11-8, 11-8. Undeterred by this lead, Quadri recovered to match up with 11-8, 11-9 win to put the encounter at 3-3.
The seventh match, the decider was spectacular with both players fighting for each pint. But at the end, the Portuguese escaped with a narrow win of 12-10 to progress to the main draw of the competition.
Before the tie against Monteiro, Quadri had overcame a highly-rated Chinese Taipei’s Wang-Wei Peng with a 4-2 win in his first group match.
A disappointed Quadri said he was not too happy losing narrowly to the Portuguese.
“It was a sad day for me because I was close to making it to the main draw of the men’s singles and I lost narrowly to what I could say is ill-luck. In all, I was not disappointed with my performance but I am sad to have lost in such manner that I was looking for just a point to win,” he regretted.
Continuing he said: “There are lots of differences in Qatar when compared to my performance in Kuwait. Though I am still lacking in the receiving tactic but I was always ready to make blocking anytime I received a service. As I am hoping to be at the German and Spanish Opens and I want to thank the President of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), Wahid Oshodi for sponsoring us to these competitions, may God continue to help him.”
Unlike Quadri, Kazeem Makanjuola was no match to his two opponents as he was walloped 4-0 by Singapore’s Zhaoxu Xin and Egypt’s Omar Assar.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria’s duo of Quadri and Makanjuola are hopeful of good outing in the doubles event after setting up a clash against home boys – Qatar’s pair of Fahed Almughanne and Mohammed Alyafei in the preliminary round of the men’s doubles.
The tournament is the highest prize money tournament in the ITTF World Tours with a total package of $500,000. 200 players from 35 countries are participating in the five-day tournament, which is one of the Super Series in the tour.
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