[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa won the men’s and women’s singles titles, respectively, at the 2017 Bulgaria Open that just completed today. Ovtcharov and Ishikawa are two of the biggest threats to China.
Ovtcharov had a number of close matches and come-from-behind games en route to his title. He has arguably the best backhand serve and best backhand in the world. Ishikawa won the women’s singles title in a field that featured only Japanese players starting with the second round. This is the first time in a World Tour event where all players starting from the final 16 were all from one country.
I have played Ovtcharov once when he came to the LA Open in 2013 and was lucky to win 1 game and lost 3-1 in our open singles match. He is the only player ranked in the top 10 in the world I have ever won a game from in competition. I have also played Chinese top defensive players Ding Song and Hou Yingchao who have both been in the world top 10 and they hammered me! I have won games against World and European Champions Mikael Appelgren (former World #2) a few times to 21 and 11 and Peter Karlsson (former World #3) in a game to 7 in practice but haven’t gotten a chance to play many of the top 10 players in competition.
It’s cool that some top world-class players are also cool people. Peter Karlsson gave me good tips when I did multi-ball with him and helped my backhand when he had likely the best backhand in the world. Ovtcharov told me after my match with him that “your everything was good” and that I had good touch when I asked him for advice. I think Ishikawa was voted Japan’s nicest athlete.
One of Ovtcharov’s come-from-behind matches was against Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna in the semi-finals where he was down 3-1 and won 4-3. Here are highlights of their semifinal match:
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