Calderano wins the gold in Doha and wins the biggest table tennis title in Brazil – 09/25/2021

Today (25) Hugo Calderano won the most relevant title in the history of table tennis in Brazil. The 25-year-old was crowned champion of the WTT Star Contender competition in Doha, a stage of the World Tour held in Qatar. In the final, he beat Darko Jorgic of Slovenia 4 sets to 2.

Due to the pandemic, the sport’s global circuit calendar has been curtailed last season and this current season, with the Star Contender of Doha being one of the main events. Compared to tennis, it’s as if Hugo Calderano won the Masters 1,000 today.

On his way to the title, the Brazilian won five matches. He passed Paraguay’s Marcelo Aguirre (65th in the standings, 3 to 0), Korea’s Jonghoon Lim (75, 3 to 1), France’s Simon José (19, 3 to 1), England’s Liam Pitchford (15, 4 to 1) and finally Jorgic Which ranks 25th in the world. Calderano is currently in eighth place. Of the seven who preceded him in the standings, only German Ovcharov, seventh, took part in the tournament.

Despite a career that cemented him for some time as the best table tennis player in Brazilian history, Calderano never had a title of this magnitude. Until then, he had only two gold medals in singles on the track in Brazil, in 2013 and 2017, at the Open Championship (to say less). In the first of these achievements, he became the youngest stage winner to date.

In his approach, he also earned silver medals at the Qatar Opens in 2018 and Austria in 2016, as well as bronze medals in events including key expressions, such as the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in 2018. Calderano also collected four gold medals at the Pan American Games, two In singles, one in men’s doubles and one in teams.