Chinese Taipei’s second seeded Chuan Chih-Yuan booked his place in the quarter-finals of the Men’s Singles event at the Erke Austrian Open in Salzburg on Saturday 1st November 2008 and in so doing extracted revenge for a defeat suffered less than 24 hours earlier.
In the semi-finals of the Men’s Team event the fast attacking style of the young man from Chinese Taipei had been doused by Seiya Kishikawa in the crucial deciding contest of the duel.
A good night’s sleep, time to re-appraise and Chuan Chih-Yuan extracted revenge. He overcame Seiya Kishikawa in five games winning 8-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-9, 11-9.
Back to Form Steger
The result was as predicted by the seeding with Seiya Kishikawa seeded no. 16 and in the vast majority of cases it was the higher ranked player who prevailed in the third round.
However, as seemingly always there is an exception and the exception to the rule was provided by Germany’s Bastian Steger, a player who had not enjoyed the best of form in the Men’s Team event losing both his matches in the quarter-final duel against Germany.
In the singles event it was a different story. Seeded no.12 he beat twelfth seed, Belgium’s one and only Jean-Michel Saive.
Bastian Steger won a seven games duel by the margin of 11-7, 11-3, 4-11, 11-3, 7-11, 4-11, 11-7.
Germans in Form
Success for Germany and the third round of the Men’s Singles event proved a very successful affair for the Austrian neighbours.
No less than four German players booked quarter-final berths with Timo Boll, Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Patrick Baum joining Bastian Steger in the last eight.
Top seed, Timo Boll overcame Poland’s Lucjan Blaszczyk in four straight games whilst in one game more third seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov overcame Sweden’s powerful Jens Lundqvist.
Meanwhile, in the battle of the players who had progressed through the qualification rounds, Patrick Baum ended the progress of England’s Paul Drinkhall. It is the first time that Patrick Baum has reached the quarter-final stage of a Men’s Singles event on the ITTF Pro Tour, the previous best being at the Liebherr Brazilian Open in Belo Horizonte in 2007.
End of Road for Mattenet
Baum is the one player remaining alive from the qualification stage of the Men’s Singles event; the one other player from the initial stages to reach round three, France’s Adrien Mattenet, suffered defeat.
He was beaten by Poland’s Wang Zeng Yi in five games.
Success for Germany and also for Croatia with Zoran Primorac defeating Spain’s João Monteiro in six games whilst for Austria there had to success or conversely disappointment.
Austrian Hopes on Schlager’s Shoulders
Werner Schlager, seeded no.4 defeated compatriot Robert Gardos, seeded no.10 in five games.
“I was very focused and served well today”, said Werner Schlager. Winning the first two games was the key to success.”
Schlager dominated the first two games, it gave him confidence and hopes of Austrian gold now lay very much on his shoulders.
Source: www.ittf.com
