Croatia’s 22 year old Andrej Gacina made a major breakthrough in his international career when he reached the final of the Under 21 Men’s Singles event at the Volkswagen Pro Tour Grand Finals in Beijing in December 2007.
On that occasion silver was his lot, losing to Korea’s Cho Eon Rae.
However, since that meeting he has put together a whole string of good performances and is without doubt one of Europe’s beacons, in an age where Asia is very much in the ascendancy.
Powerful
In the Men’s Singles event at the Polish Open in Warsaw he has continued the very consistent run of good form.
Powerful and with a big heart in the mode of the “Lion of Zagreb”, Dragutin Surbek, Andrej Gacina caused the one surprise in the second round of proceedings in the top half of the Men’s Singles draw.
Home Supporters Dismay
Playing with increasing confidence he broke the hearts of the host nation’s supporters; in a tense, action packed seven games encounter he beat Lucjan Blasczyk. Power overcame speed.
Andrej Gacina, never in front until the final game, succeeded 7-11, 4-11, 11-7, 12-10, 6-11, 11-9, 11-7.
Highly Seeded Players Succeed
Defeat for the no.13 seed but for the highly seeded players no sadness.
Top seed, Germany’s Timo Boll defeated Japan’s teenage prodigy, Kenta Matsudaira whilst third seed, Singapore’s Gao Ning ousted Portugal’s Tiago Apolonia.
Timo Boll won 11-7, 11-4, 11-8, 11-3 whilst Gao Ning prevailed 11-13, 7-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-5, 11-9.
Jiang Tianyi and Alexei Smirnov
Success for Timo Boll and Gao Ning and also success for the seventh and eight seeded players.
Hong Kong’s Jiang Tianyi, seeded no.7, inflicted more pain on Poland; he beat Daniel Gorak (11-6, 11-3, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7) whilst Russia’s Alexei Smirnov, seeded no.8, overcame Maksim Shmyryev in the all Russian duel.
Alexei Smirnov won 10-12, 11-4, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-9.
Wins for Gardos, Korbel and Süss
In the remaining second round matches in the lower half of the draw; Austria’s Robert Gardos defeated Romania’s Constantin Cioti (11-8, 11-6, 11-6, 11-5), the Czech Republic’s Petr Korbel overcame India’s Sharath Kamal Achanta (6-11, 7-11, 11-3, 11-9, 13-11, 9-11, 11-6) whilst Christian Süss accounted for Russia’s Igor Rutsov (11-13, 11-3, 11-7, 8-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-5).
Source: www.ittf.com
