England’s Paul Drinkhall caused the major surprise, Japan’s Kenta
Matsudaira came perilously close to recording a sensational victory and
Poland’s Wang Zeng Yi excelled; that was the scenario in the second
round of matches in the Men’s Singles event at the Erke Austrian Open
in Salzburg on Friday 31st October 2008.
Eighteen year old
Drinkhall, who had come through the qualification stage successfully,
defeated Russia’s ninth seeded Alexei Smirnov in seven games; whilst
one year younger, Kenta Matsudaira, lost by the very narrowest of seven
game margins to Germany’s Bastian Steger.
Not to be outdone by younger players, Wang Zeng Yi ousted fifth seed, Denmark’s Michael Maze.
Results
Paul
Drinkhall won 7-11, 12-10, 4-11, 11-8, 11-2, 6-11, 11-6, Bastian Steger
overcame Kenta Matsudaira 11-9, 12-14, 10-12, 11-8, 12-14, 11-8, 11-9;
whilst Wang Zeng Yi prevailed against Michael Maze 11-8, 11-6, 11-8,
6-11, 12-10.
Qualifiers Succeed
Success
for Paul Drinkhall who is one of three qualifiers to book a place in
the third round, the others being Germany’s Patrick Baum and France’s
Adrien Mattenet.
Patrick Baum defeated Hungary’s Daniel Zwickl whilst Adrien Mattenet overcame Poland’s Pawel Chmiel.
Top Seeds Succeed
However, for the four highest seeded players there were safe passages
Top
seed Germany’s Timo Boll ousted Croatia’s Andrej Gacina and second seed
Chinese Taipei’s Chuan Chih-Yuan ended the hopes of Austria’s Daniel
Habesohn.
Also successful was Timo Boll’s compatriot, third
seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov; he overcame Portugal’s Tiago Apolonia and the
host nation’s Werner Schlager used home advantage to good effect to
beat Hungary’s Peter Fazekas.
Opening Round Repeat
The
wins by the top four players reflected very much the opening round
successes that they had enjoyed. Comfortable wins for Timo Boll, Chuan
Chih-Yuan and Werner Schlager but a tough seven games encounter for
Dimitrij Ovtcharov.
In round two it was just the same, Ovtcharov needed seven games to beat Tiago Apolonia.
Top Half
Success
for Werner Schlager in the top half of the draw and also for colleague
Robert Gardos, Portugal’s João Monteiro, Poland’s Lucjan Blaszczyk and
Croatia’s Zoran Primorac.
Robert Gardos defeated the Czech
Republic’s Tomas Konecny, Lucjan Blaszczyk proved too experienced for
Latvia’s Matiss Burgiss, João Monteiro excelled to defeat Welshman Adam
Robertson whilst Zoran Primorac overpowered Portugal’s Marcos Freitas.
Lower Half
Meanwhile,
in the lower half of the draw, Sweden’s Jens Lundqvist, Belgium’s
Jean-Michel Saive and Japan’s Seiya Kishikawa all came through
successfully.
Jens Lundqvist defeated compatriot Robert
Svensson, Jean-Michel Saive overcame Hungary’s Ferenc Paszy whilst
Seiya Kishikawa ended the hopes of Croatia’s Roko Tosic.
Source: www.ittf.com
