by Wade Townsend

Andrej Gacina and Marcos Freitas were set to partner up in Suzhou 2015, but the dream team never happened when the Gacina was forced to withdraw through injury.

In Düsseldorf the pair finally are making their World Championships debut. Better late than never.

A gold medal in the 2011 European Championships, and more recently the GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open ended with the Croatian and Portuguese combination claiming the Men’s Doubles crown; the pair is one of the top combinations in the world.

So it was a surprise for many to see the duo playing in the preliminary rounds. But Gacina was philosophical about the draw.

“We haven’t played for two years so we have to go back to the beginning.” Andrej Gacina

In some ways the pair may benefit from a few more matches.

“I think we have an advantage getting to play matches in the main competition hall earlier. It is completely different than the training hall. Playing that tough match then should be good for us.” Andrej Gacina

With the preliminary rounds successfully navigated their attention to what the main draw will throw at them.

“We are now just waiting to see who we will draw. We could get the number one seeds. Obviously I hope for good draw.” Andrej Gacina