Lin Shidong to Meet Uda, Kuai Man Faces Batra — WTT Star Contender Ljubljana Day 1

event · 2026-06-19

Lin Shidong to Meet Uda, Kuai Man Faces Batra — WTT Star Contender Ljubljana Day 1

The 2026 WTT Star Contender Ljubljana wrapped up the first day of main-draw play, with the singles round of 32 and the doubles quarterfinal line-ups now decided.

In men’s singles, Lin Shidong, Wen Ruibo, Xiang Peng and Chen Yuanyu all received first-round byes, while China’s two players in action split their matches. Yuan Licen beat India’s Manav Thakkar 3-1, racing to an 11-4, 11-9 lead before Thakkar pulled one back 14-12; Yuan steadied himself to close it out 11-7 in the fourth. Chen Junsong, who pairs inverted rubber on the forehand with short pips on the backhand, fell 3-2 to another Indian player, Manush Shah, in an extraordinarily tight match — every one of the five games was decided by just two points, and the first four all went past 10-all.

In women’s singles, Chen Yi, Kuai Man and Shi Xunyao had byes. Of the players in the first round, four Chinese advanced: He Zhuojia overwhelmed Korea’s Lee Eunhye 3-0, conceding only seven points across the three games; chopper Zhu Sibing edged Germany’s Annett Kaufmann 3-1 in a hard-fought win over the powerful 2024 Paris Olympics semifinalist; Fan Shuhan beat in-form Korean Kim Nayeong 3-0; and Xu Yi defeated France’s Prithika Pavade 3-1. Yang Yiyun and Qin Yuxuan both fell to Indian opponents — Yang losing 3-1 to Batra and Qin going down 3-0 to Akula.

In the men’s doubles round of 16, China went 2-1: Wen Ruibo/Huang Youzheng beat Slovenia’s Hribar/Podobnik 3-0, Xiang Peng/Chen Junsong survived a five-game battle against another Slovenian pair, Darko/Kozul, while Lin Shidong/Yuan Licen lost 3-0 to Japan’s Togami Shunsuke/Shinozuka Hiroto.

In the women’s doubles round of 16, Kuai Man/Chen Yi swept Romania’s Dragoman/Diaconu 3-0, Qin Yuxuan/Zong Geman recovered from a game down to beat Korea’s Kim Nayeong/Lee Eunhye 3-1, while Han Feier/Shi Xunyao led 1-0 before being overturned by Serbia’s Surjan/Lupulesku. Next round, Kuai Man/Chen Yi and Qin Yuxuan/Zong Geman will meet for a place in the semifinals.

In mixed doubles, Wen Ruibo/Kuai Man lost 3-1 to top seeds Lim Jonghoon/Shin Yubin, leaving Huang Youzheng/Chen Yi as China’s only remaining pair in the event after their 3-0 first-round win over Slovakia’s Pistej/Kukulkova.

June 19 schedule (Beijing time)