Japan’s 17 year old Kenta Matsudaira and Croatia’s 20 year old Andrej Gacina were the players to cause the upsets in the top half of the draw, in the opening round of the Men’s Singles event at the Polish Open in Warsaw on Friday 28th November 2008.
Kenta Matsudaira, the winner of the Boys’ Singles title at the World Junior Championships in 2006, beat Slovakia’s Thomas Keinath in six games; whilst Andrej Gacina, one of Europe’s most improved players in the past twelve months, overcame Germany’s Lars Hielscher.
Close Games the Key
Succeeding in the close games was the key for Andrej Gacina as he recovered from an opening game deficit to win 6-11, 13-11, 12-10, 18-16, 11-7; whilst for Kenta Matsudaira became stronger as the duel progressed.
He won 9-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-13, 11-7, 11-7.
World Rankings
Thomas Keinath currently stands at no.75 on the ITTF Men’s World Rankings whilst Kenta Matsudaira is at no.109; meanwhile, Andrej Gacina occupies position no.107 with Lars Hielscher being at no.99.
Two defeats for seeded players; Thomas Keinath occupied the no.27 spot with Lars Hielscher at no.31.
Timo Boll and Gao Ning
However, there were no problems in the top half of the draw for the leading names.
Germany’s Timo Boll, seeded no.1, defeated Loic Bobillier of France whilst Singapore’s Gao Ning, seeded no.3, overcame Austria’s Mattias Habesohn.
Both recorded straight games victories; Timo Boll prevailed 11-4, 11-2, 11-5, 11-3 whilst for Gao Ning it was victory by the margin of 11-6, 11-4, 14-12, 11-3.
Tough Matches
Also, it was success for the players seeded six and eight but not in quite such comfortable fashion.
Hong Kong’s Jiang Tianyi, seeded no.6, recorded a reasonably comfortable five games win over Russia’s Alexei Liventsov (11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-0) but for latter’s compatriot, the eighth seeded Alexei Smirnov, life was much tougher.
He needed the full seven games to beat Spain’s Carlos Machado.
Alexei Smirnov won 11-7, 12-10, 11-13, 10-12, 8-11, 11-8, 11-6.
Source: www.ittf.com
