Hugo’s next challenge on the World Table Tennis tour starts on Tuesday. The WTT Star Contender Goa will be held from January 23 to 28 in Mapusa, India. Currently ranked seventh in the world, Hugo is the first seed and starts directly in the second round. Find out all about the tournament below.

This will be the second edition of the WTT Goa.  Hugo didn’t played the inaugural edition last year, which featured an all-Chinese final, in which Liang Jingkun beat Lin Shidong 4-2. This year, he is the only Brazilian taking part in the tournament.

The matches will take place at the Peddem Indoor Stadium in Mapusa, the capital of the state of Goa. It was built for the 2014 Lusophone Games. This event demonstrates the Lusophone past of this western region of India. 

Goa was the capital of the Portuguese State of India between 1510 and 1961, when the region was finally annexed to the Republic of India. It is one of the country’s main tourist attractions, well known for its Arabian Sea beaches.

WHO WILL BE PLAYING IN THE WTT STAR CONTENDER GOA?

Hugo is the first seed of the tournament, but his path will not be easy, as other excellent names in men’s table tennis will be present in Goa. Félix Lebrun, a 17-year-old Frenchman ranked eighth in the world, is the second seed.

Germany’s Dang Qiu (WR 11) will be the third seed. He won a thrilling match against Hugo in the WTT Star Contender Doha two weeks ago. South Korea’s Jang Woojin (WR 13) is fourth seed, while the other top seeds are: Dimitrij Ovtcharov from Germany (WR 12), Quadri Aruna from Nigeria (WR 14), Darko Jorgic from Slovenia (WR 15) and Anton Källberg from Sweden (WR 17).

As the top seed, Hugo starts off directly in the second round on Friday. He will face either the Indian wildcard Anirban Ghosh (WR 357) or an athlete coming from the qualifying.

COMPETITION SYSTEM

All matches at the WTT Star Contender Goa will be played in a single elimination format.

Matches will be played in best-of-five format until the semi-finals. The final will then be played over seven games.

WHAT’S AT STAKE

Check out the ranking points and prize money:

Champion: 600 points / US$ 10,000
Runner-up: 420 points / US$ 7,500
Semi-final: 210 points / US$ 4,000
Quarter-final: 105 points / US$ 2,500
Round of 16: 55 points / US$ 1,500
2nd Round: 25 points / US$ 1,250
1st Round: 5 points / US$ 900

Hugo started 2024 in fifth place in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings, but as he won the Durban and Doha titles in January 23, he fell to sixth place last week and seventh in this week’s rankings.

Hugo can return to sixth place if he wins or finishes runner-up – provided he doesn’t lose to Félix Lebrun in the final. If he becomes the champion, Hugo will have 2775 points, just 10 behind China’s Lin Gaoyuan, who is fifth in the ranking.

SCHEDULE

Here is the schedule for each day of the WTT Star Contender Goa:

Tuesday (23/1)- 1st round of qualifying
Wednesday (24/1)- 2nd and 3rd round of qualifying
Thursday (25/1)- 1st round
Friday (26/1)- 2nd round
Saturday (27/1)- Round of 16 and quarterfinals
Sunday (28/1)- semi-final and final

The matches start at 10am local time (03:30am GMT).

HOW TO FOLLOW

ESPN / Star+ stream the Table 1 matches in the main draw of the WTT Star Contender for Brazil. In addition, World Table Tennis YouTube broadcasts the matches from the other tables. And, as always, we’ll also have our coverage on Team Calderano’s Instagram, Facebook and Telegram channels!

(Photo: WTT)