The bespectacled Adrien Mattenet continued his good form in the second session of play in the Under 21 Men’s Singles event at the Volkswagen Pro Tour Grand Finals in Macau on the afternoon of Thursday 11th December 2008 and in so doing booked himself a place in the semi-finals.
In the morning session of play he beat Singapore’s Liu Zhoing Ze, in the afternoon session he ended the aspirations of the Czech Republic’s Lubomir Jancarik. Mattenet was as determined as ever, he won 12-10, 12-10, 11-7, 5-11, 11-9.
Return of Service
The Frenchman is a warrior, he enjoys the battle but there is much more to Adrien Mattenet than just a splendid attitude.
Against Jancarik he was the better player over the table; in particular his ability to return service with his backhand, using a very flexible wrist to impart a mixture of sidespin and topspin reaped dividends.
Fifth Game
However, he did have his moment of anguish; in the fifth game he led 9-5 and was two points away from sealing success.
Jancarik levelled, the Frenchman called “Time Out” and then won the point of the match. A tremendously athletic counter topspin rally went his way. It broke the resistance of the Czech player.
A long point, then a short point to end the match; Mattenet served short to the forehand, a weak return and the Frenchman capitalised with a ferocious forehand attack.
Kirill Skachkov
A place in the penultimate stage for Adrien Mattenet and also in Group B, the same for Kirill Skachkov; having defeated Jancarik in his opening encounter he maintained his form to beat Singapore’s Liu Zhing Ze.
Skachkov played in typical style and proved the more powerful player, he revelled in the counter topspin rallies and caused the Singaporean to make weak returns of service by using the reversed service short to the forehand.
Kirill Skachkov won 11-5, 6-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-8.
Group A
Meanwhile in Group A it was success for Singapore’s Ma Liang and Portugal’s Marcos Freitas.
Ma Liang, having been beaten in his opening match by Freitas, returned to form and in terrier like fashion defeated Chinese Taipei’s Chiang Hung-Chieh.
The Singaporean never let his opponent settle, from the very first point he attacked quickly and proved the more powerful player.
He won 11-8, 11-6, 8-11, 8-11, 14-12, 11-8; the close fifth game win proving the crucial stage of proceedings.
Marcos Freitas
A six games win for Ma Liang whilst for Marcos Freitas it was a full distance success; having dominated matters in his opening encounter against Ma Liang he was stretched to the very limit by a spirited Frenchmen in the guise of Emmanuel Lebesson.
The Frenchman regularly forced the man from Funchal back from the table; the result being exciting topspin rallies whilst for Freitas he gained success by playing with heavy topspin towards the body of Lebesson, the variations in degrees of topspin proving crucial
It was the best match of the tournament to date with little to chose between the two left handers with Freitas the faster player and perhaps that degree more consistent at the crucial stages.
Marcos Freitas won 10-12, 11-8, 8-11, 11-3, 10-12, 12-10, 12-10.
Source: www.ittf.com
