Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

Masataka Morizono and Yuya Oshima, the top seeds, accounted for Belgium’s Robin Devos and Cédric Nuytinck, the no.7 seeds (11-4, 12-10, 11-8); Kristian Karlsson and Mattias Karlsson ended the hopes of fellow qualifiers the French partnership of Tristan Flore and Emmanuel Lebesson (11-8, 5-11, 11-7, 11-2).

A left hander and right hander appeared in three of the four pairings, the odd one out being the combination of Robin Devos and Cédric Nuytinck. Both are left handers and seen by some as not the best combination; the left hander with the right hander being the class partnership.

Against Masataka Morizono and Yuya Oshima, for Robin Devos and Cédric Nuytinck life was difficult; the Japanese duo focused their attacking efforts towards the body of the Belgian duo, asserting their authority and reducing their adversaries to a passive role.

“We played fast towards their backhands as much as possible; that made it very difficult for them to move; we focused on making sure that we served well and received well. They have good services; they use the reverse service often, it was important we returned positively”, Masataka Morizono.

“I think most important we were better in the short play”, Yuya Oshima

It was a dominant performance from Masataka Morizono and Yuya Oshima; it was the same from Kristian Karlsson and Mattias Karlsson; after losing the second game, they moved up a gear to clinch the third, in the fourth they were in the fast lane

“We played really well today, we were clever. The first attack, the first return is always important; in that respect we were good today. Both of them return well from the backhand using the banana technique. Short, short we were good today; we were able to play our game and we followed the short play very strongly”, Mattias Karlsson

The Men’s Doubles final will be played on Sunday 26th February.