Alkass Digital
Doha: Qualifying is complete and the main draw is now set for WTT Star Contender Doha 2024. With a fully-loaded schedule for Day 1 there are plenty of matches to keep an eye out for.
With the seeds taking a bye through to the round of 32, the pressure will be on the underdogs to score a win a book a place at the table on Day 2.
A highlight match on the agenda in Qatar is Alexis Lebrun coming up against Patrick Franziska.
While Lebrun holds a six-place lead in the rankings, the duo faced each other twice, with Franziska taking down both of their 2022 matches. For the big-hitting German it's an opportunity to improve on last season's Star Contender performance, where he fell at the first hurdle in Goa. For Lebrun it will be all about getting one over a player that has stumped him so far.
At the last edition of the event back in 2022, Franziska made a run to the round of 16, going down to Zhou Qihao in four games. Meanwhile for Lebrun, time has made a world of difference, with his last showing at Star Contender Doha ending in round 1 of qualifying.
The prize for the winner is a place in the round of 32 to face top seed Fan Zhendong. Both Lebrun and Franziska have won against the World No.1 before. The German would go in trailing 1:5 against Fan, while for the young Frenchman, he currently holds a perfect 1:0 record against the Chinese superstar.
Elsewhere in the event, qualifiers will take centre stage having put in the hard yard to earn their place in the main draw.
Harmeet Desai will be a player to watch in the Men's Singles. The World No.75 strung together three wins in row to take his main draw ticket. The most impressive was his finals qualifying match, that saw him take out World No.43 Benedikt Duda in a full-distance thriller.
While the 30-year-old from India was unable to move beyond the round of 64 in a Star Contender in 2023, he showed a resurgence of form when he posted a semifinal run at Contender Lagos in June. Desai will face Wong Chun Ting to see if he can improve on last year's efforts. The underdog goes ing Wong 0:1 in their head-to-head, having lost their 2023 encounter in five games.
In the Women's Singles, the spotlight will be on qualifier Andreea Dragoman when she comes up Barbora Balazova. Dragoman negotiated her way to the main draw with two wins, including a stunning straight games victory over Fu Yu. The Romanian hit a rich vein of form in the second half of 2023, reaching the semifinal of Feeder Olomouc and the quarterfinal of Contender Antalya. Today's matchup will be a first-time meeting between Drogaman and Balazova.