The fear of the number 13, rational or no, is called triskaidekaphobia. Some blame the Norse trickster Loki, who crashed a happening Valhalla dinner party of 12 before ruining the vibe with death and destruction and other downers. Others say the bad mojo traces back to Judas, who is depicted as sitting thirteenth at The Last Supper before betraying Jesus. Whatever the origin story, the number 13 has long been considered unlucky. Anecdotal evidence abounds: the Apollo 13 mission had a problem, some campers had problems on Friday the 13th, and so forth. Taking triskaidekaphobia to irrational extremes, buildings are even built without 13th floors (which seems inherently unstable). If Russia's Kirill Skachkov harbored any reservations about the maligned number, however, he has likely dispelled them by now. Skachkov entered the 2020 World Singles Olympic Games Qualification Tournament in Doha, Qatar as the 13th seed. Against most, if not quite all odds, Skachkov defeated the tournament's top seed to claim a spot in this summer's Tokyo Olympics. The tournament, the third stage of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Middle East Hub, dangled nine Olympic berths in front of 163 entrants. Earlier today, Thailand’s Suthasini Sawettabut claimed the last of five spots allotted the 60 women in the draw. For the 73 gents involved, a scant four spots were on offer. Divided into three knockout brackets, the winners of each would qualify directly. The non-victorious semifinalists would then coalesce into a final playoff bracket for the last ticket to Tokyo. One such gentleman caller, the aforementioned Kirill Skachkov, was seeded 13th overall. The Russian #1 is ranked 55th in the world, a distant 40 spots behind top seed Liam Pitchford of England. Both players crashed out in the semifinals of their respective brackets, leaving their summer plans in limbo. Both the prohibitive favorite Pitchford and the unheralded Skachkov made good use of their second lives, slicing their ways to the final. While many predicted this is where Skachkov's Cinderella story would end, the 33-year-old Russian had other ideas. Five games later, and it was lucky #13 Skachkov looking smashing in the glass slipper, upsetting Pitchford, (11-7, 7-11, 11-8, 14-12, 11-7), for the last ticket to Tokyo. Not only has Kirill Skachkov banished any vestigial triskaidekaphobia, he even has good cause to coin a neologism: triskaidekaphilia.

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