(by Steve Hopkins)
Action is underway at the ITTF World Team Championships in Busan. In the Men’s Teams, top group seeds are all still undefeated: China (3-0), Germany (2-0), Korea (2-0), France (2-0), Japan (2-0), Sweden (2-0), Slovenia (2-0), and Portugal (2-0). TeamUSA has played only one match (falling to Germany), though they are scheduled to play England on Sunday (and they still have Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia later in the week). Puerto Rico is 0-2, (losses to Serbia and Sweden) with Slovakia and Hong Kong still scheduled.
In the Men’s event so far, there have not been many tight matches. Two future TeamUSA opponents, England and Kazakhstan have logged one 3-2 match (a narrow win for England despite Kiril Gerassimenko winning both of his matches). The only other 3-2 victory went to Canada, who went the full distance in their 3-2 win over Malaysia.
The top seeds are all holding their own in the Women’s event as well, though there was some real excitement on the first day for China. India won the first match when the faced off against China. That victory, Ayhika Mukherjee over Sun Yingsha was a monumental step for India and would have been news in itself (a loss by World No. 1 to World No. 155). However, two matches later, when World No. 49 Sreeja Akula upset World No. 2 Wang Yidi things got really interesting. India was up 2-1 in a first-to-3 match with two more chances to log the biggest upset in decades – but China found their footing and Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu closed the door with 3-1 and 3-0 victories (giving China a narrow 3-2 win in their first match).
The Women have been much more tightly contested matches thus far. England fell to Kazakhstan 2-3, Ukraine needed every match for their 3-2 win over Croatia, France only topped the Czech Republic 3-2, Italy upset Puerto Rico 3-2, TeamUSA fell to Chile 2-3, and Sweden barely topped Singapore 3-2. The top seeds seem to be pushing forward, but things will get tighter later this week as those top seeds will face the second seeds in their groups. The “local” teams are having a tough run right now, with TeamUSA 0-2, Puerto Rico 0-1, and Canada 0-2.
Group action continues on Sunday – and elimination rounds will proceed through to next weekend.
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