2016 ITTF World Tour Belgium Open (Challenge) in De Haan
Seeded at the positions no. 15 and 32 Cedric NUYTINCK and Florent LAMBIET booked their places in the Round of 16 of the Men’s Singles Event at the 2016 ITTF World Tour Belgium Open (Challenge) in De Haan at the delight of the home crowd. They joined top seeded Omar ASSAR of Egypt and Germany’s Steffen MENGEL after the first day of the play in the main draw of the event.
In Round of 32 NUYTINCK beat Swede Viktor BRODD 1-4 (4-11 4-11 10-12 13-11 7-11) whilst LAMBIET succeeded against Germany’s Dennis KLEIN by same margin (9-11 8-11 7-11 11-7 9-11). However it was not a very bad day for Sweden. Harald ANDERSSON no 21 seed beat Ricardo WALTHER in straight games (11-4 11-6 11-7 11-7). German player seeded at position no. 5 was the highest player on duty to suffer the defeat in second round. Previously no 4 seed Cazuo MATSUMOTO of Brazil lost against KLEIN. Vasily LAKEEV of Russia no 10 seed is also out. He lost against Laurens TROMER of Netherlands. TROMER was required to play in qualifications to reach the main draw.
Top seeds in Women’s Singles Event are also safely through to the third round. Hitomi SATO of Japan overcame Lucie GAUTHIER of France in straight games (11-7 11-3 11-7 11-7) whilst Romania’s Elizabeta SAMARA beat Rahel ASCHWANDEN of Switzerland (6-11 14-16 4-11 4-11).
Hitomi SATO and Honoka HASHIMOTO are one of the Japanese pairings who will play in the semi-finals of the Women’s Doubles Event following a 3-1 win over Nina MITTELHAM of Germany and Sarah De NUTTE of Luxembourg (11-7 18-16 8-11 11-6). Marina MATSUZAWA and Mariko TAKAHASHI also progressed after they defeated the Romanian duo of Elizabeta SAMARA and Bernadette SZOCS in straight games (11-9 11-3 11-8).
Georgina POTA of Hungary and Yulia PROKHOROVA of Russia overcame Audrey ZARIF and Lucie GAUTHIER of France with Alex GALIC of Slovenia and Rachel MORET of Switzerland beat Germany’s Chantal MANTZ and WAN Yuan.
In Men’s Doubles Event Simon ARVIDSSON and Jon PERSSON of Sweden emerged victorious against Mexicans Marcos MADRID and Salvador URIBE as well as another pairings from Sweden Fabian AKERSTROM and Harald ANDERSSON. They eliminated Steffen MENGEL and Ricardo WALTHER of Germany.
Anthony TRAN and Viktor BRODD withstood remarkably recovery from the host nation’s Robin DEVOS and Cedric NUYTINCK to book the quarter-finals place. The other partnerships to move into the quarter-finals are: Adam SZUDI and Tamas LAKATOS (Hungary) Benedikt DUDA and Dennis KLEIN (Germany) Tomas POLANSKY and David REITSPIES (Czech Republic) and the Russian duo of Mikhail PAIKOV and Alexey LIVENTSOV.