by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
At the quarter-final stage they overcame the combination of Australia’s Nicholas Lum and Egypt’s Mohamed Azzam before recording the same margin of victory in opposition to the combination formed by Russia’s Ilia Anokhin and Louis Laffineur.
A place in the final booked in an impressive manner, in the title deciding contest it was exactly the same; a three matches to nil win was posted when facing the Russian outfit comprising Sergey Ryzhov and Vladislav Makarov.
Impressive from Li Hsin-Yu and Wang Yi-Fan; it was very much the same from Vladislav Makarov and Sergey Ryzhov; likewise a direct entry to the semi-finals and an unblemished record in the group stage, they accounted for the Iranian duo of Arya Amiri and Radin Khayyam to reserve their place in the penultimate round.
The one win for the Iranians was recorded in the opening match of the fixture when Arya Amiri beat Vladislav Makarov by the very narrowest of decisions (11-8, 13-15, 11-7, 10-12, 11-9). A close defeat for Vladislav Makarov but after Sergey Ryzhov had beaten Radin Khayyam (11-2, 7-11, 11-9, 0-11, 11-5), he enjoyed doubles success (11-6, 14-12, 11-4), prior to concluding the fixture by overcoming Radin Khayyam (11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 11-5).
Notably in the group phase Arya Amiri and Radin Khayyam had surrendered just one individual match; that being against Slovenia when the duo had been beaten in the doubles contest by Aljaz Godec and Matija Novel (4-11, 11-6, 11-1, 11-9).
