(by Steve Hopkins)

The WTT Contender Event in Doha is down to the Final 8, and the top two seeds are cruising.  Top seeded Tomokazu Harimoto took down Sangsu Lee 3-1 and second-seeded Hugo Calderano dominated Jaehyun An 3-1.

On Friday, Calderano will face German League Ochsenhausen teammate Simon Gauzy a Tomokazu will face another Korean player, Daeseong Cho.  Other Friday matches are Dimitrij Ovtcharov who will face off against Mattias Falck, and Lin Yun Ju who will face Quadri Aruna.

There have been more surprises on the women’s side as top seeded Mima Ito is the only top seed remaining.  She will face Korea’s Haeun Yang on Friday.  In the other three matchups, Japan’s Kihara will face Korea’s Jeon, Japan’s Hayata will face Germany’s Shan, and Singapore’s Mengyu will face Thailand’s Sawettabut.

Check in with ButterflyOnline.com for news and scores as the ITTF Calendar heats up ahead of the Olympic Games this July.