(by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor)
Champions but more than one set to fall
A total of 15 players on duty who have won ITTF World Tour Men’s Singles titles, add to the list the names of India’s Soumyajit Ghosh and Panagiotis Gionis of Greece who last year enjoyed ITTF Challenge Series success, one fact in the qualification tournament that precedes the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Hungarian Open and commences on Tuesday 16th January, becomes abundantly clear.

Only 16 places available for qualifiers in the main draw; at least one player who has stood proudly on the top step of the podium when the curtain has been drawn on the final day of action will not even progress to the main event in Budapest.

In fact it will be more; Singapore’s Gao Ning, the winner in New Delhi in 2007 and Santiago in 2012 is drawn in the same group as Serbia’s Zsolt Peto, crowned champion in 2009 in Minsk.

Similarly in the group phase, Soumyajit Ghosh, who emerged successful last year at the 2017 ITTF Challenge Seamaster Chile Open, faces Russia’s Vasily Lakeev, victorious on the 2012 ITTF World in Cairo and Minsk.

Furthermore, first place in the initial phase group is no guarantee whatsoever of progress to the main draw. There are no less than 54 groups in the preliminary stage of the Men’s Singles event; players finishing in first place in Group No.11 to Group No.54 compete in preliminary round one. The 22 winners advance to preliminary round two where they are joined by the players who finished in first places in Group No.1 to Group No.10; the winners of the second preliminary round join the 16 seeds in the main draw.

An exacting journey and in addition to those who face each other in the group phase there could well be a significant number of ITTF World Tour winners who do not appear in the main draw on the morning of Thursday 18th January. Who knows what the preliminary rounds may reveal?

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