by Ian Marshall, Editor
Furthermore all ended the hopes of top seeds.
In the women’s singles events, in class 6, Maliak Alieva beat Ukraine’s Maryna Lytovchenko at the final hurdle to arrest the title (11-9, 12-10, 11-5).
Success against the leading name in the event, it was the same in class 8 but one round earlier; Yuri Tomono accounted for Russia’s Elena Litvinenko (11-7, 11-4, 11-7), prior to securing the title at the expense of Hungary’s Zsofia Arloy (11-8, 11-5, 11-5).
Top seed beaten in penultimate round
Meanwhile, in the men’s singles competitions, in class 1-2, Oleksandr Yezyk claimed the title at the final expense of Russia’s Rasul Nazirov (11-5, 10-12, 12-10, 11-3), notably in the semi-finals having ousted the Czech Republic’s Jiri Suchanek, the top seed (12-10, 11-9, 4-11, 4-11, 11-3).
Likewise, it was in the penultimate round when Lev Kats caused a major upset in class 9; he beat top seed Japan’s Koyo Iwabuchi (10-12, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-6), before securing the title at the final expense of Great Britain’s Josh Stacey (11-7, 7-11, 11-6, 11-8).
Gold for Ukraine in the men’s singles events against the odds, it was the same for Germany; Thomas Rau secured the class 6 title beating Great Britain’s David Wetherill (10-12, 11-9, 11-6, 6-11, 12-10) in the title decider.
“When you play the game of table tennis you win or lose, there is no middle ground. The final today was a draw except he won.” David Wetherill
Leading names succeed
Otherwise, it was success for the leading names. In the women’s singles events, it was the top step of the podium for Russia’s Nadejda Pushpasheva (class 1-2) and Victorya Safonova (class 7). Likewise, it was the top prize for Slovakia’s Alena Kanova (class 3), Germany’s Sandra Mikolaschek (class 4) and Sweden’s Ingela Lundbäck (class) as it was for Hungary’s Alexa Svitacs (class 9) and Chinese Taipei’s Tian Shiau-Wen (class 10).
Similarly, in the men’s singles competitions, it was gold for Germany’s Thomas Brüchle (class 3), Turkey’s Abdullah Ozturk (class 4) and Chinese Taipei’s Cheng Ming-Chih (class 5). Not to be upstaged it was the same for Sweden’s Nicklas Westerberg, Ukraine’s Viktor Didukh and Indonesia’s David Jacobs.
The individual events over, the team competitions now take centre stage; play concludes in Lahti on Sunday 13th October.
2019 ITTF Para Finland Open: latest results and draws
