7/10/2009 Morocco Open Hassan II

The names of two new partnerships appeared on the ITTF Pro Tour Doubles roll of honours in the afternoon of Friday 10th July 2009.

At the Morocco Open Hassan II, victory at the final hurdle went the way of the French pairing of Loïc Bobillier and Armand Phung in the Men’s Doubles event; whilst in the counterpart female competition it was success for the Japanese combination of Ai Fukuhara and Kasumi Ishikawa.

The latter duo recorded a six games success over Korea’s Kim Jung Hyun and Seok Ha Jung in a contest where the top seeds beat the second seeds.

Meanwhile in the counterpart male final, Loïc Bobillier and Armand Phung defeated the combination of Bulgaria’s Stanislav Golovanov and Russia’s Maxim Shmyryev.

Recently Formed
All four partnerships that appeared in the finals were very new to international competition as pairings.

It was the first time on the ITTF Pro Tour that Stanislav Golovanov and Maxim Shmyryev had been in harness; whilst for Loïc Bobillier and Armand Phung it was very much the same scenario.

Current Year
As for the Women’s Doubles partnerships there was just a trifle more history but it was confined to the current year.

Ai Fukuhara and Kasumi Ishikawa had joined forces at the Harmony China Open and at the Japan Open in June; on both occasions reaching the quarter-final stage of proceedings.

Similar
Similarly for Kim Jung Hyun and Seok Ha Jung, they had shown their pedigree at the Japan Open. They reached the final losing eventually to the host nation’s Sayaka Hirano and Reiko Hiura.

In Rabat, once again a Japanese pairing ended golden hopes for the Koreans.

Photo

Kasumi Ishikawa and Ai Fukuhara, the Women's Doubles champions in Morocco..