by Simon Daish
Launching his campaign in the upper half of the draw Lubomir Pistej claimed a major opening round scalp in Düsseldorf, eliminating Korea Republic’s Jeoung Youngsik, seeded 11th, across five games to announce himself in style.
One round later Lubomir Pistej accounted for another seeded opponent, knocking Finland’s Benedek Olah out of the running before ensuring his spot in the top 16 with a straight games victory over Hungary’s Tamas Lakatos.
Dreaming of a spot in the quarter-finals but it wasn’t to be for Lubomir Pistej, falling to Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto in the Round of 16. Defeat for the Slovakian but an excellent campaign nonetheless.
The display was somewhat unprecedented for Lubomir Pistej having exited at the first hurdle of the Men’s Singles draw in the previous four editions of the event and his outstanding run in Düsseldorf surpassed his personal best finish from the 2007 World Championships in Zagreb where he reached the second round following a terrific victory over 2003 World champion Werner Schlager.
A top doubles player Lubomir Pistej has already enjoyed a successful outing in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, partnering Barbora Balazova to a fine semi-finals finish in the Mixed Doubles event at Seamaster 2019 ITTF World Tour Hungarian Open in January.
Lubomir Pistej and Barbora Balazova will pair up once again in Mixed Doubles action when the Liebherr 2019 World Championships arrive in under two weeks’ time while Samuel Kaluzny will partner Pistej in the Men’s Doubles category.
Watch Lubomir Pistej compete with the best in Budapest by grabbing your Liebherr 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships tickets below:
