by Simon Daish
Quadri Aruna led by example for Sporting, proving too strong for Anton Källberg (16-18, 11-9, 11-3, 5-11, 11-6) and Sharath Kamal Achanta (11-6, 11-9, 11-9) but two victories for the visiting team forced the match to a decider. Diogo Carvalho then stepped up with a five games win over Anton Källberg (11-2, 9-11, 12-10, 8-11, 11-8), however, the Portuguese side’s fate had already been sealed in France on the previous night.
Two wins from Patrick Baum and a third courtesy of Can Akkuzu saw AS Pontoise-Cergy account for TTC Ostrava 2016 3-1 to guarantee their place in the next round, dashing any hopes Sporting had of progressing. The race for top spot in the group will be decided next time out as Borussia Düsseldorf and AS Pontoise-Cergy go head-to-head in a cracking encounter.
Suffering defeat last time out but Angers Vaillante now leads the pace in Group C following a strong outing against FC Saarbrücken.
Opening the scoring for the hosts was Jon Persson as he cruised past Darko Jorgic in straight games (11-6, 11-9, 11-1) but the man of the hour was Andréa Landrieu, who saw off both Patrick Franziska (8-11, 12-10, 5-11, 11-7, 12-10) and Darko Jorgic (11-7, 11-9, 11-9) to guide the French outfit to an important 3-1 win.
Zhai Yujia struck a brace of victories over Pavel Sirucek (11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7) and Panagiotis Gionis (7-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-6) with the latter player also losing out to Michael Maze (8-11, 12-10, 8-11, 11-8, 11-3) as Roskilde Bordtennis BTK61 emerged successful on its travels to K.S. Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki by a 3-1 score-line.
Despite an end result of 3-0, TTC Fakel Gazprom Orenburg’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Marcos Freitas and Vladimir Samsonov all required the full match distance to see off Post SV Mühlhausen’s Daniel Habesohn (9-11, 11-7, 11-13, 11-2, 11-7), Ovidiu Ionescu (9-11, 11-5, 11-3, 7-11, 11-9) and Lubomir Jancarik (11-13, 11-5, 8-11, 13-11, 11-1) in Group D. French club G.V. Hennebont kept their qualification hopes alive with a comfortable 3-0 win at home to Eslovs Ai Bordtennis.
SPG Walter Wels won for the second match in a row, beating K.S. Dekorglass Dzialdowo 3-2 and TTSC UMMC proved victorious away to Stella Sport La Romagne by a 3-0 margin. TTSC UMMC has topped Group B with SPG Walter Wels, Stella Sport La Romagne and K.S. Dekorglass Dzialdowo all battling it out for second place with seven points each.