Tournaments

24 Mar 2018

An opening round success against colleague and top seed, Dimitrij Ovtcharov who was forced to withdraw from proceedings injured at the start of the fourth game, Patrick Franziska delighted the host nation’s fans at the Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour Platinum German Open in Bremen on Saturday 24th March.

He duly booked his place in the quarter-finals, a round that in the top half of the draw witnessed differing fortunes for the home nation; it was the end of the road for Ruwen Filus.

by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager

Required to compete in the three day qualification tournament, Patrick Franziska beat Portugal’s Marcos Freitas, the no.9 seed, in a hard fought six games contest(11-9, 9-11, 7-11, 15-13, 13-11, 11-6).

“It was a very close match. I never gave up, I was behind in every game. I had the feeling that he was always a little better than me. I just tried to keep up. I wasn’t that sparkling as in recent days, not that good with the feeling but I managed to stay positive. I tried to find my speed, my sparkle and tried to never give up. In the end the difference was that I was confident in difficult and close situations and made good decisions. At the moment I’m very confident. I have played very constantly during the last month, I’m not injured, which is the most important and I know that I can come back no matter what the score.” Patrick Franziska

The success been gained by Patrick Franziska came after Ruwen Filus, likewise a qualifier had experienced defeat at the hands of Sweden’s Kristian Karlsson, the no.16 seed (14-12, 11-5, 15-13, 8-11, 11-7).

“We are friends and we play a lot together, we know each other quite well and statistically I’m okay against defence players, so it was definitely okay. My tactic was to play powerful shots and it worked out very well today.” Kristian Karlsson

Success for Kristian Karlsson as status anticipated; it was the same for Frenchman Simon Gauzy and China’s Xu Xin.

Simon Gauzy, the no.7 seed, accounted for Hong Kong’s Ho Kwan Kit in an exacting seven games duel (11-7, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 6-11, 11-5); Xu Xin, the no.3 seed, ended the hopes of Korea’s Jeoung Youngsik (11-5, 11-5, 11-8, 11-2). Both Ho Kwan Kit and Jeoung Youngsik had been required to compete in the qualification tournament.

“I am quite familiar with him because we were in the same club in the Chinese Table Tennis Super League; when you know a foreign player better, you prepare better. He always seems to be in a good form. Today when I played against him, I was positive, I didn’t think too much because of my higher ranking. Instead, I told myself to fight and take the initiative. I think the matches are a bit too early in the day; however, as a Chinese player it does not matter about the arrangement.” Xu Xin

At the quarter-final stage Patrick Franziska meets Kristian Karlsson; Simon Gauzy opposes Xu Xin. The matches will be played later in the day.

World Tour 2018 Seamaster German Open xu xin Patrick Franziska Kristian Karlsson Simon Gauzy
Loading

No results found.

Photo Gallery

Day 3 - Seamaster 2018 ITTF German Open

Match Highlights