DOHA: Fifteen Qatari table tennis players will begin their 2013 Qatar Open campaigns when the qualifying rounds begin today.
In the men’s category, Ahmad Al Mohannadi ranked the highest at 470 in the world, is among the 10 male Qataris to take part in this top event at the Qatar Women’s Sports Hall at Aspire Zone.
Al Mohannadi, who will play both his qualifiers today, has been grouped with Japan’s Asuka Sakai (240) and Italy’s Mihai Bobcica (99) in Group 12, after the qualifying and main draw was conducted yesterday.
Fahed Almughanne will have to overcome Singapore’s Zhikang Wu and Brazi’ls Gustavo Tsuboi, if he is advance in the main draw.
In Group 21, Qatar’s German Shemet has been drawn against Belgium’s Yannick Vostes and Ukraine’s Oleksandr.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Al Sulaiti is in Group 24 along with Mattias Karlsson of Sweden and Czech Republic’s Pavel Sirucek.
In Group 25, Faisal Al Otaibi has been drawn against Daniel Kosiba of Hungary and England’s Liam Pitchford.
The ninth male Qatari, Khalifa Salah will face Janas Jakab of Hungary and Hong Kong’s Ting Chun Wong in Group 27.
In the last Group (29), which consists of four players, Ahmed Alawalaqi will play Egpyt’s Ahmed Saleh, France’s Romain Lorentz and Iraq’s Shaho Ameen.
Elsewhere, in the women’s category, Ayah Magdi, who became the first Qatari woman to compete at the London 2012 Olympic Games in July has been drawn in Group 7.
Magdi, 18, will face Ukraine’s Gaponova today before meeting India’s Ankita Das tomorrow in the qualifying round.
Noora Al Abri will have to tackle France’s Carole Grundisch and Singapore’s Siyun Isabelle Li if she is to advance to the main round.
Maha Faramarzi will clash against Hong Kong’s Kem Hoi Dee and Japan’s Yuki Matasumoto in Group 9, whilst Khouloud Hussain is in Group 10 along with Belarus’ Alexandra Privalova and Japan’s Miyu Kato.
The fifth female Qatari to compete, Hissa Al Hamad will play Egypt’s Dina Meshref today, before facing Japan’s Haruka Saka and Korea’s Yujin Jo tomorrow.
During the qualifying round, the playing system is round-robin, with matches best of seven games. Thirty-two places are up for grabs in the qualifying rounds.
This year’s main draw line-up in both the men’s and women’s category is likely to draw up some interesting encounters with world and Olympic champions set to feature on Friday. The seeded players in the men’s category includes Olympic and world champion Zhang Jike who clinched the Kuwait Open title earlier this week.
World number two, Zhang will be among the six Chinese men in action, which includes world number one and defending champion Xu Xin.
Ma Long and Wang Hao, who are ranked third and fourth in the world will also be seen in action.
World number six, Ma Lin, also of China will fancy his chances of winning the title on February 24.
One person who could stop the Chinese clinching the title could be world number seven Yuan-Chih Chuang of Taiwan.
Elsewhere in the women’s event, world number one Ning Ding of China will be aiming to clinch her first title in Qatar, having come second in 2011.
China also has the world number two and three, Shiwen Liu and Xiaoxia Li competing in the $212,000 event.
The competition will consist of singles and doubles categories.
THE PENINSULA
