by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
However, the euphoria was short-lived; in the second preliminary round Anders Lind and Bence Majoros suffered defeat when facing the Belarus combination of Pavel Platonov and Vladimir Samsonov (11-7, 11-9, 8-11, 12-10).
“It is our first time playing doubles together and we seem to click .We had absolutely no pressure, we just needed to play the best we could; our thanks to the Hungarian fans for cheering for us.” Bence Majaros
Defeat for one illustrious pairing, for one more it was success. Crowned European champions in Denmark in 2012, Austria’s Robert Gardos and Daniel Habesohn, both having earlier in the day experienced defeats in the Men’s Singles event, duly reserved their place in the main draw.
They accounted for India’s Harmeet Desai and Soumyajit Ghosh (11-9, 11-9, 10-12, 12-10), having earlier in the evening ended the hopes of the combination formed by Panagiotis Gionis of Greece and Slovakia’s Wang Yang (12-10, 10-12, 11-4, 11-8).
“We made the main draw that is the most important at this minute. In the second round we were ahead two-nil and 10-8. We lost that game; then in the fourth we were down 4-10 before making an incredible come back to win the game and seal the match.” Robert Gardos
The end of the road for the second highest rated pair on qualification phase duty in the guise of Chen Chien-An and Chuang Chih-Yuan but not for the top listed partnership, Hong Kong’s Lam Siu Hang and Ng Pak Nam progressed but only just. They were stretched to the limit by Iran’s Nima Alamian and Mlad Lotfjanabadi (5-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9), prior to reserving their place in the main event courtesy of success in opposition to Romania’s Cristian Pletea and Hunor Szocs (11-6, 11-8, 11-5).
Success for the highest rated by the narrowest of decisions, defeat for the second named in the order of merit; it was exactly the same in the Women’s Doubles event.
Egypt’s Yousra Helmy and Dina Meshref beat the combination of Charlotte Carey of Wales and Israel’s Nicole Trosman (11-7, 6-11, 11-7, 11-7) to book their place in the main draw, having earlier ousted the Austrian combination of Karoline Mischek and Amelie Solja by the minimal two point margin in the decisive fifth game (11-5, 12-14, 12-10, 7-11, 13-11).
Meanwhile, for Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chia-Chih and Wang Yi-Ju, the second rated pairing; after beating the Czech Republic’s Nikita Petrovova and Kristyna Stefcova (11-9, 11-5, 11-5), experienced defeat at the hands of Poland’s Katarzyna Grzybowska-Franc and Natralia Partyka (11-4, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6).
Play in the main draw of both the Men’s Doubles and Women’s Doubles events commences on Thursday 18th January.
