The French men proved equally as successful as their female counterparts at the Universiade in Belgrade on Monday 6th July 2009.
A semi-final place was booked by the women and it was the same for the men.
In
the quarter-finals of the Men’s Team event Emmanuel Lebesson, Adrien
Mattenet and Abdel-Kader Salifou ousted Chinese Taipei who fielded
three players among the top 150 of the ITTF World Ranking.
Emmanuel Lebesson (listed as Stephane Lebesson on the event website)
beat Wu Chih-Chi in the fifth game of the fifth match to secure the
semi-final spot for the men in blue.
Two Duels Asia against Europe
Lebesson and company will face Japan in the semis.
The
Men from Nippon made short shrift of Russia winning three-nil. Only in
the doubles match did the Russians came close to a win. The Japanese
team with world no.20 Jun Mizutani, will be hard to beat for the
French.
Progress for Germany
Germany also progressed to the semi-finals. Nico Stehle, Nico Christ and Lennart Wehking prevailed against Serbia three-one.
The
German players, all world ranked between number 200 and 350, are
internationally relatively unknown. However, this is normal for a
country that has no less than nine players in the top 100.
Janos Jakab’s Resistance against China
The men from Hungary failed to create a surprise against China.
Hungary’s world no.77 Janos Jakab tried everything but the Magyars eventually lost by three matches to one.
China’s
19 year old rising star Xu Xin who won one singles match and one
doubles plus Jin Yixiong who recorded a three-one win against Jakab
avoided an early exit in the quarter-finals.
Source: www.ittf.com
