by Ian Marshall, Editor
All three had caused major upsets on the opening day; Takuya Jin had beaten colleague Yuya Oshima, Viacheslav Burov had accounted for Croatia’s Andrej Gacina. Likewise, Tobias Hippler had caused the biggest shock of the day by overcoming the defensive skills of Slovakia’s Wang Yang.
Comfortable against backspin play, facing the attacking skills of Pavel Platonov of Belarus, it was a different story, Tobias Hippler experienced defeat in four straight games (11-8, 12-10, 11-9, 11-7).
Defeat for Tobias Hippler but not for Takuya Jin, he beat Mexico’s Marcos Madrid (11-4, 11-4, 12-10, 7-11, 11-6), whilst Viacheslav Burov eventually prevailed in a full seven games contest in opposition to Belgium’s Martin Allegro (5-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-13, 11-9, 11-5, 11-9).
Success for Viacheslav Burov on what was a round of mixed fortunes for Russia. Grigory Vlasov was beaten by Slovenia’s Darko Jorgic (11-3, 11-9, 11-8, 11-5); Alexey Liventsov lost to Japan’s Taku Takakiwa (13-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-2). Similarly Sadi Ismailov suffered at the hands of Italy’s Mihai Bobocica (11-9, 11-6, 9-11, 12-10, 11-6).
Conversely, colleague, Kirill Skachkov gave the performance of the round; he beat China’s Xu Chenhao (7-11, 5-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-7, 11-8). According to world status the win was not out of the ordinary; Kirill Skachkov is presently listed at no.60, Xu Chenhao at no.300 but that rating belies his status. Notably in 2013, he was the runner up at the ITTF World Tour Japan Open; in the final he was been by the host nation’s Masato Shiono, a player who at the time hit a purple patch in his career.
Similarly, in the third preliminary round of the Men’s Singles event, it was differing fortunes for the host nation, Tomas Tregler lost to Austria’s Stefan Fegerl (11-5, 11-9, 11-5, 11-9) but David Reitspies overcame Frenchman, Can Akkuzu (16-14, 11-7, 11-9, 9-11, 5-11, 11-7) and Lubomir Pistej accounted for Sweden’s Jon Persson (11-8, 11-4, 12-10, 11-9, 6-11, 11-7).
The fourth preliminary round to determine main draw places will be staged later in the day.
