by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
Youssef Ben Attia, Louay Hamrouni, Khalil Sta combined to beat colleagues Mohamed Amine Sta and Hamza Guerfali, representing Tunisia ‘B’, by three matches to one; the one success for the defeated being recorded by Mohamed Amine Sta. In the opening match of the fixture, he accounted for Louay Hamrouni (11-7, 11-8, 5-11, 11-9).
A fine effort from the first team but pride of place must go to Youssef Abid and Raed Alloumi.
They recorded a three-two win against the Algeria ‘A’ Team pairing of Abderrahman Azzala and Abdelbasset Chaichi; notably Abdelbasset Chaichi beat both Youssef Abid (13-11, 11-3, 18-16) and Raed Elloumi (11-9, 11-8, 11-6) but that was the sum total of Algerian success.
Abderrahman Azzala was beaten by Raed Elloumi in the second match of the fixture (8-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-8) and by Youssef Abid in the concluding contest (12-10, 11-8, 11-6); the success for the latter coming after the Tunisians had won the vital doubles (11-4, 11-6, 8-11, 9-11, 11-6).
Meanwhile, in the opposite half of the draw it was three-nil wins in both instances. The Italian duo of Matteo Gualdi and John Oyebode overcame the Egypt ‘A’ pairing of Omar Allam and Ahmed Elmahdy; India’s Payas Jain and Maanav Mehta ended the hopes of the Saudi Arabia ‘A’ Team partnership of Meshari Aldawsari and Khalid Alshareif.
The semi-finals and finals will be played later in the day.
