In their debut appearance at the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships in Busan Slovenia caused an upset in the rankings by defeating Singapore whilst other European favorites continued their momentum from the previous day.
The second-seeded Germany runners-up in five out of the last six World Championships left Kazakhstan without any chances with a 3-0 victory. Benedikt DUDA defeated Ali ALKHADRAWI Dimitrij OVTCHAROV justified his position against Abdulaziz SHULAYBI and European champion Dang QIU defeated Turki ALMUTAIRI. Germany did not drop a game in two matches so far.
“We played confidently. It was okay ” said Benedikt DUDA who played his first singles match in Busan against the opponent’s number one Abdulaziz Bu SHULAYBI. “From tomorrow onwards tougher opponents will come.”
Led by Darko JORGIC who secured two wins Slovenia defeated Singapore. Three-time winner of the Europe Top 16 Cup Darko defeated Izaac QUEK and PANG Yew En Koen. Peter HRIBAR added the third point with a victory over CHEW Zhe Yu Clarence.
Austria defeated New Zealand: Robert GARDOS Daniel HABESOHN and Andreas LEVENKO overcame Nicholas LUM Finn LUU and Aditya SEREEN.
Unlike the Hungarian women’s team which defeated Spain today the men’s team suffered at the hands of Croatia’s players. Tomislav PUCAR won both his matches against Adam SZUDI and Csaba ANDRAS. ANDRAS also suffered a defeat in the match against Andrej GACINA.
The leaders in Group 6 Sweden overcame Puerto Rico in straight matches. Kristian KARLSSON defeated Angel NARANJO after a five-game match.
“My physical and mental condition was good today. I played against a good opponent who managed to catch me off guard a couple of times with his strong forehands and good serve. It was a tough first match for me in the tournament but I’m happy to have won it. I had a good timeout in the fifth game which was pretty crucial. Then I got to 10-5 and managed to win at 11-8. So I’m very happy with the match ” said Kristian.
Mattias FALCK succeeded against Brian AFANDOR in the opening match of the duel.
“All matches here are always tough. You have to play at a high level all the time. Now there is no big difference between all the table tennis players. But I’m happy that we got another 3-0 victory. So it feels good for us ” said Mattias.
Anton KALLBERG said “Next match tomorrow we play against Hong Kong which is the group final probably. So of course we have to bring our A game and be even better than before. And I think we all show good form so far.”
The French team recorded their second win. Simon GAUZY Alexis LEBRUN and Jules ROLLAND overcame Algeria with Milhane JELLOULI Abdelbasset CHAICHI and Mehdi BOULOUSSA.
Regarding the change in the lineup Alexis LEBRUN said “We do not know the specific reason for the change from yesterday’s match. But I think it is good for the team because we won. The coach assigned positions and we did our best to win.”
Romania’s Eduard IONESCU Ovidiu IONESCU and Darius MOVILEANU overcame Egypt with Omar ASSAR Youssef ABDEL-AZIZ and Mohamed EL-BEIALI.
England was stretched to the full five matches against Kazakhstan. Kirill GERASSIMENKO proved too strong for both Paul DRINKHOL and Liam PITCHFORD but there were no others to follow his path so PITCHFORD DRINKHALL and Tom JARVIS prevailed against the rest of Kazakhstan’s team.
“We had good team spirit and were prepared for a tough match. We knew that they are a good and dangerous team. Every match here will be difficult and it’s good to win the match ” said Paul DRINKHALL.
“We know how to win the other three matches. For me it was tough to come back from injury not so long ago and there were two days to practice. The first match was not great but I felt like I played better in the second match. Winning a medal at the World Championships is never easy and not many European teams have done it. These days all the teams get stronger so we need to be prepared for every tough match. It was a tough match to play against Kirill and it was a close match. In the last game he didn’t miss many easy balls and it was a good rally. Hopefully I can build on the match and get better and better for the next match ” said Liam PITCHFORD.
England won bronze in 2016 in Kuala Lumpur with Liam and Paul being in that team.
In the final match of the day Portugal prevailed against Iran. Marcos FREITAS recorded two wins; he beat Nima ALAMIAN and Noshad ALAMIYAN in both occasions in full five games. Joao GERALDO lost to Noshad while Tiago APOLONIA beat Amir Hossein HODAEI.
