Draw held at an impressive ceremony at the Mall of Qatar
Doha: World No. 1 Lin Shidong is set to make his debut at the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Doha 2025, where he aims to excel.
However, the 20-year-old Chinese sensation faces a challenging road to success, as revealed by the draw yesterday. As the countdown to the major event from May 17-25 approaches its conclusion, the official draw ceremony was held against a lively backdrop at the Mall of Qatar, allowing players to discover their paths to the esteemed titles.
The latest ITTF world rankings established the seedings for all competitions, with Shidong, who recently secured consecutive WTT Grand Smash titles in China and Singapore, leading the 128-player lineup. Shidong’s journey will commence with a match against England’s Commonwealth Games champion Liam Pitchford, and he is on a potential collision course with Brazilian Hugo Calderano, who recently defeated Lin to claim the ITTF Men’s World Cup just ten days prior.
Meanwhile, China’s reigning Olympic champion and seven-time world champion, world No. 2 Wang Chuqin, is positioned on the opposite side of the draw. Should he advance to the semi-finals, the 24-year-old Chuqin may encounter Sweden’s Truls Moregardh (ranked 7th), potentially setting the stage for a rematch of the men’s singles final at the Paris Olympics.
Chuqin, who shares his half of the draw with Japan’s World No. 4 Tomokazu Harimoto and Germany’s former World No. 1 Dimitrij Ovtcharov, will kick off his campaign in Doha against 18-year-old American talent Nandan Naresh.
In other matchups, Qatar’s Ahmed Korani will face Chinese Taipei’s emerging star Kuo Guan-Hong, while Mohammed Abdulwahhab is set to compete against New Zealand’s Alfred Dela Pena. The third Qatari player, Sultan Al-Kuwari, will take on three-time Belgian national champion Martin Allegro in the Round of 128.
Additionally, the top contender and World No. 1 Sun Yingsha from China heads the women’s draw.
Yingsha, who leads her closest rival in the world rankings by more than 5000 points, will begin her journey from the second round, and will meet the winner of the Round of 128 clash between Costa Rica’s Lucia Zavaleta or North Korea’s Pyon Song Gyong.
Yingsha’s compatriot and the 2021 champion Wang Manyu is placed on the opposite end and has also been given a bye into the second round.
Qatar’s Aia Mohamed was drawn against Suban Rosalba Aguiar at yesterday’s draw, while her compatriot Maryam Ali will face Chilean veteran Zhiying Zeng who makes her Doha appearance at the age of 58.
Speaking ahead of the draw ceremony, the head of the Qatar Table Tennis Association as well as the Arab and Asian federations, and First Vice-President of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), Khalil bin Ahmed Al Mohannadi said Qatar aims to deliver “one of the finest World Championships ever staged.”
“The Doha 2025 will be written in gold letters in the history of the sport. Preparations are well ahead of schedule with competition equipment to be installed at Lusail Sports Arena and the University of Doha for Science and Technology Hall within three days,” Al Mohannadi said.
“Everything will be ready by May 10, allowing us to begin welcoming participating delegations from May 11,” Al Mohannadi added as Qatar gears up to host the prestigious event for the second time following the highly successful 2004 edition.
Al Mohannadi also forecast a record turnout for the ITTF Annual General Meeting which will be held on the sidelines of the event on May 27, when the federation elects its new President.
