(By Amy Karpinski, President of Cape Fear Table Tennis Club/Photo by Tony Murnahan)
BREAKING NEWS FROM DAY 2 DOUBLES ACTION
Women’s Doubles
The big news of today’s doubles action was the young USA Team of the Sung sisters. Joanna and Rachel Sung (ranked 455th in the world) defeated Russia’s Sibel Altinkaya and Ozge Yilmaz 3-2. The young USA team faltered a bit after a 2-0 lead letting the Russian team sneak back in and tie it 2-2. The Sung sisters pulled it together and won the fifth game decisively 11-5.
USA’s team of Olympians Yue Wu and Lily Zhang (currently ranked 33rd in the world) battled hard in their match against Belgium’s unranked team of Nathalie Marchetti and Margo Degraef. However, Belgium eeked out a victory against the favored US pair.
Canadian’s Mo Zhang and Joyce Xu fell to Sarah DeNutte and Xia Lian Ni of Luxembourg 3-1.
Fan team favorites Suthasini Sawettabut/Orawan Paranang of Thailand, Sofia Polcanova of Austria/Bernadette Szocs of Romania, and Mima Ito/ Hina Hayata of Japan all stood their ground and defeated their opponents easily 3-0.
There are still a few matches left to play including China’s number one team of Chen Meng (world #1) and Qian Tianyi.
Please click this link to keep up with all the women’s doubles scores: https://eventresults.ittf.com/eventInfo?subEvt=WDOUBLES&selectedTab=Draws&eventId=2346
Men’s Doubles
The second biggest upset in USA’s favor was the team of Nikhil Kumar and Kai Zhang (ranked 75th in the world). Kumar and Zhang pummeled the higher ranked team of Aleksandr Khanin and Pavel Platonov from Belarus (ranked 53rd in the world) shutting them down 3-0.
Fan favorite teams of Patrick Franziska/Timo Boll of Germany, Kristian Karlsson and Mattias Falck of Sweden, and Jao Monteiro/Tiago Apolonia of Portugal cruised through to the next round by defeating their competitors 3-0.
There are still a few men’s doubles matches left to play including Puerto Rico’s power duo of Daniel Gonzalez and Brian Afanador.
Men’s doubles results can be found at: https://eventresults.ittf.com/eventInfo?subEvt=MDOUBLES&selectedTab=Draws&eventId=2346
UPSETS ABOUND: Harimoto, Freitas, Niwa, Falck, Samara, Solja – OUT!!!!
Men singles
The crowd was stunned when Tomokazu Harimoto (world ranked 5 and tournament’s 2nd seed) fell in a seven-game battle to Poland’s Jakub Dyjas (ranked 65). The match was a nail biter for fans of both players and Dyjas’s fans roared when he won the seventh game 11-9.
Portugal’s Marcos Freitas (ranked 24) had no answer to the relentless power of Germany’s Benedict Duda (ranked 45). Duda ended up with a convincing 4-1 win.
Daniel Habesohn (ranked 46) of Austria toppled fan favorite Koki Niwa (ranked 19) in a decisive 4-2 victory.
Sweden’s top ranked player Matthias Falck (ranked 10) fell to France’s Alexandre Cassin (ranked 145) in an epic seven game battle.
Today marked the first-time fans were able to watch the top eight seeds compete. World number 1, China’s Fan Zhendong, made short work of eliminating Iran’s Amir Hossein Hodaei.
Victories were also in the cards for China’s Lin Gaoyuan who narrowly eeked out a win in the seventh game over Sweden’s Anton Kallberg.
Fan favorite Timo Boll of Germany outlasted China’s Zhou Qihao. Zhou’s elimination disappointed Chinese fans who were hoping for another all Chinese final.
USA’s Kanak Jha delighted the local fans by securing his spot in the round of 32 by crushing Croatia’s Andrej Gacina in a commanding 4-0 fashion.
Here is a link for the complete list of players and scores: https://eventresults.ittf.com/eventInfo?subEvt=MSINGLES&selectedTab=Draws&eventId=2346
Women’s Singles
Upsets were alive and well in the women’s singles as well. Taipei’s Liu Hsing-Yin (ranked 86) crushed Romania’s Elizabeta Samara (ranked 33) 4-0. Another big upset was Romanian Andrea Dragoman (ranked 252) stunning the crowd with a heart stopping 4-3 victory over Germany’s Petrissa Solja (ranked 19).
USA’s Amy Wang and Lily Zhang both advanced to the round of 32 by defeating their opponents. Amy defeated Russia’s Sibel Altinkaya in statement making fashion 4-0. Lily fought her way through a tough match with Serbia’s Andrea Todorovic and won her match 4-2.
The fans showed up in full force to witness top seed Chen Meng from China compete for the first time in this Championship. As expected, she easily cruised to the round of 32 with a 4-0 victory over Lin Ye of Singapore.
Here is a link for the complete list of players and scores: https://eventresults.ittf.com/eventInfo?subEvt=WSINGLES&selectedTab=Draws&eventId=2346
Photo of day 2 doubles can be found here
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