(by Steve Hopkins)

The WTT Contender event this week is in Tunis.  The top seeds were Patrick Franziska and Quadri Aruna, but neither made it to the Finals.  The headliners going into Saturday’s Final are Dang Qiu and Anton Kallberg.  Germany’s Qiu and Sweden’s Kallberg regularly train together as teammates on the Borussia Dusseldorf squad.  Qiu’s path to the Final including wins over Kirill Skachkov (3-1), Enzo Angles (3-0), Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (3-0) and Filip Zeljko (4-0).  Kallberg topped Gardos (3-1), Fanbo Meng (3-0), Ovidiu Ionescu (3-0), and Quadri Aruna (4-3).  The Qiu/Kallberg Final will be Saturday afternoon.

On the Women’s side, it will be Xiaoxin Yang taking on Hana Matelova.  Hana is a Top 50 player from the Czech Republic, and Xiaoxin Yang is Monaco’s top player.  Both knocked off a top seed in the Semifinals, with Hana topping Sofia Polcanova 4-2 and Yang beating Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz.  The Final will be Saturday afternoon.

The Mixed Doubles Final was held today with France’s Lebesson/Yuan topping Khanin/Trigolos of Belarus 3-2.  The other doubles Finals will be Saturday with  the Men’s Doubles Final between India’s Desai and Gnanasekaran and France’s Lebesson and Cassin, and the Women’s Doubles Final will be between Sweden’s Bergstrom and Kallberg and the mixed country team of Moret/Trigolos (Switzerland/Belarus).

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