by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

Patrick Franziska and Jonathan Groth, the no.7 seeds, beat Sweden’s Kristian Karlsson and Mattias Karlsson, the no.4 seeds, in five games (11-4, 11-6, 11-6, 11-13, 13-11); whilst in a slightly more testing contest Jakub Dyjas and Daniel Gorak, the no.6 seeds, ended the hopes of Portugal’s Tiago Apolonia and João Geraldo, the no.14 seeds (11-9, 12-10, 9-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-9).

The defeat suffered by Kristian Karlsson and Mattias Karlsson was somewhat of an upset; not only in terms of ranking but in terms of experience; they were the one pair with a pedigree of success at a European Championships.

In 2012 in Herning they reached the final only to lose by the very narrowest of margins when facing the Austrian partnership of Robert Gardos and Daniel Habesohn.

Thus on the concluding day of action, there will be only two players on duty in the Men’s Doubles final who has previous experience of competing in a European Championships final.

Both are on the same side Patrick Franziska played in the Men’s Team final in 2013 in Schwechat and last year when the tournament was staged in Ekaterinburg; Jonathan Groth partnered colleague Kasper Sternberg in  the final in Ostrava in 2013; They were beaten by Patrick Franziska’s colleagues, Timo Boll and Christian Süss.