by Wade Townsend

Germany’s Petrissa Solja and Sabine Winter survived a seven game encounter against Luxembourg’s Sarah De Nutte and Xian Lian Ni. It was a narrow escape with the home crowd cheering them over the finish line. Meanwhile the two pairings from China were untroubled, taking their matches in straight games.

In the Men’s Doubles there was an all Swedish affair with Kristian Karlsson and Mattias Karlsson facing off against Par Gerell and Anton Kallberg. The match all went according to script with the two Karlsson’s taking the match 4-1. Oddly, on the very next table there was a similar situation with an all Brazil doubles match also in action. Once again there was no upsets with Hugo Calderano and Gustavo Tsuboi defeating Eric Jouti and Cazuo Matsumoto 4-2.

The number one seeds in the Men’s Doubles, Yuya Oshima and Masatak Morizono, kept the Japanese fans on their seats as they saw off Aleksandar Karakasevic (SRB) and Wang Zengyi (POL). With Karakasevic’s amazing skill set and Zengyi’s powerful short pimple forehand, it proved to be an interesting encounter.

“Karaksevic has unbelievable short play with too much variation! For me it was okay, but Oshima kept missing and saying how difficult it was.” Masataka Morizono

It’s not just the German players that feel at home in Düsseldorf. For Morizono, this is one of this favourite places to compete.

 “I’ve lived in Germany for nine years now; I like it so much here. Frickenhausen is my home town and I have a lot of friends here who have come out to support me.” Masataka Morizono

The German crowd may have divided loyalties if he happens to run in to Timo Boll and Ma Long in the final.