2013 Qatar Open: Zhang Jike Abandoned The Competition! (Videos)

China secured all places of semifinals as expected. Top seeds Xu Xin, Ma long and Wan Hao stood victorious in their matches and got a ticket to the next stage but the world and olympic champion Zhang Jike didn't have the same fate. Zhang faced his compatriot Yan An in the last quarterfinal. He started losing the first game by 11:8. Then he fell by 11:7. The Chinese player didn't look comfortable at the table and it seemed that he didn't have the motivation for a comeback. In the third game, Zhang Jike called a time-out and said to the umpire that he couldn't continue playing, so Yan An progressed to the next round. According to ITTF, Zhang  abandoned for injury.

Before Zhang Jike's withdrawal, Xu Xin overcame Chinese Taipei's Chuang Chih-Yuan by 11:9, 11:9, 11:4 and 12:10. Xu Xin will meet hs compatriot Ma Long, who emerged successfully over Dimitrij Ovtcharov by 11:5, 11:7, 11:5, 8:11 and 11:7. Wang Hao was the penultimate player who reached semifinals. The former world champion overcame Patrick Baum y 11:8, 11:7, 11:1 and 11:5 and will face Yan An. 

Semifinal matches start at 12:30 (local time) on itTV

Xu Xin vs Chuang Chih-Yuan Video kindly shared by ttCountenance

Ma Long vs Dimitrij Ovtcharov Video kindly shared by Video kindly shared by ttCountenance

Wang Hao vs Patrick Baum Video kindly shared by TableTennisEvents

Yan An vs Zhang Jike Video kindly shared by Janus770

Photo and info. source: topnews.in - ittf.com