(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Singapore starlet Isabelle Siyun Li and veteran Jorgen Persson, yesterday collected victories in their respective qualifying matches as the 2015 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open offering a record prize money got under way at the Qatar Women's Sports Community Hall in Doha.
Li who leapfrogged to 101 from 130th spot in the world rankings, within the span of a month, registered an easy win over Huang Yu-Chiao of Chinese Taipei 4-1, in the first preliminary round to enter the next stage.
As many as six more matches of the preliminary round were contested in the women singles category with Maha Ali failing to give breakthrough to the hosts as the Qatari player fell on first hurdle.
She lost to Bernadette Szocs of Romania in straight games.
Meanwhile, the first qualifying round of men's singles at $500, 000 championship, saw the 48-year old Persson making a successful return to the prestigious tournament.
The Swede who featured in the inaugural edition of Qatar Open in Doha, back in 1997 overcame 17-year-old local player Abdulrahaman Al Naggar after an early scare. Promising Al Naggar won the first game 8-11 but later experience prevailed over talent as Persson took the next three games 11-8, 11-8, 11-6 and 11-5 to advance. Five more Qatari players lost their first qualifying matches with German Shemat, Abdul Hussein Waled Nasser Al Hajjai, Fahed Almughanne and Ahmad Al Mohannadi losing against their respective opponents. Al Mohannadi, however, displayed a gallant effort as Frenchman Petiot Jeremy had to stretch fully to beat the fighting Qatari. After Jeremy won the first two games 11-4, 11-7, Al Mohannadi staged a brilliant fightback winning the next game 12-10 on tie-breaker.
The French player extended the lead again by taking the next game 11-6 before Al Mohannadi bounced back again to win the fifth game 7-11.
Jeremy , however showed accuracy in the next game, winning it 11-4 to seal hard-fought win. The qualifying rounds of both the categories will continue today with the women singles matches scheduled to start at 11am.
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