WTT Contender Doha 2024 concludes
Doha: 42-year-old table tennis icon Timo Boll turned back the clock on the final day at WTT Contender Doha 2024, clinching his first Men’s Singles title on the WTT Series with a dramatic 4-3 win against Tomokazu Harimoto (8-11, 11-9, 11-6, 6-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8).
Entering the event as a Host Wildcard, the former World No.1 looked back to his best over the course of the week in Doha, outclassing two of the top-three seeds Jang Woojin and Lin Yun-Ju on his way to the final, and was determined to complete the trio with No.2 seed Harimoto awaiting at the final hurdle.
Harimoto made a blinding start to the match, ripping a cracking top spin down the diagonal at 8-9 to set up game point, which he duly converted at the first time of asking. The Japanese player then looked poised to double his advantage after opening up a promising 5-8 lead in game two, but Boll clawed his way back to 9-9 before drawing back-to-back errors from his opponent to level things up at one game apiece.
Momentum swung in Boll’s favour, and the German legend could sense the opportunity, keeping his foot firmly on the accelerator pedal to move 2-1 ahead. Harimoto looked a little shaken up, but quickly found his composure to rally back to 2-2, and the passionate celebrations continued in game five as Harimoto capitalised on a well-timed ‘Time Out’ call late in the game to retake the lead.
With the scoreboard showing 5-9 in Harimoto’s favour, it looked almost inevitable that the Japanese player would kick on to close out the match in six. But Boll had other ideas, leaning on his vast experience to weather the storm, bagging six points in a row to force a decider. Leading for most of the final game, Harimoto edged closer and closer to the finish line, but it was Boll who would have the last laugh, taking the second of three Championship Point opportunities to kickstart the euphoric celebrations.
Holding his first WTT Series trophy with a beaming smile on his face, Boll ends a 30 month wait for a return to success, with his previous Men’s Singles title at an international ranking event coming at the 2020 ITTF European Championships.
The Women’s Singles final also went the full distance as Jeon Jihee saved six Championship Points to stun top seed Shin Yubin in an extraordinary title match (8-11, 11-9, 14-16, 9-11, 18-16, 11-8, 11-5).
A topsy-turvy affair from start to finish, both players experienced their fair share of ups and downs. Locked up at one game apiece, Jeon had four game point opportunities in the third end as she bid to take the lead for the first time in the match. But she failed to put the game away as Shin held her nerve on all four occasions, before going on to steal the game.
Another game soon fell into Shin’s hands as the 19-year-old star opened up a commanding 1-3 lead in the best of seven encounter. But then came the most astonishing game of them all as Jeon saved two Championship Points at 8-10 down to extend game five, before denying Shin victory four more times to win a 34-point thriller.
From Jeon’s elation to Shin’s devastation, the contrast in emotions coming out of game five couldn’t have been more stark, and that would ultimately prove the turning point as Jeon rode on the wave of momentum to bring home her first-ever Women’s Singles title on the WTT Series.
That wasn’t Jeon and Shin’s only appearance of the day, combining forces in the opening match of Day 4 to see off Annett Kaufmann and Sabine Winter in the Women’s Doubles final (11-8, 11-5, 11-4). Lim Jonghoon and Lee Sang Su came away with the Men’s Doubles title, prevailing 3-2 over Lam Siu Hang and Ho Kwan Kit (11-13, 11-4, 9-11, 11-7, 11-6).
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