HARIMOTO beats SAMSONOV after full seven games

Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour Czech Open

Defending champion Tomokazu HARIMOTO from Japan beat another European legend in the Czech Republic city of Olomouc to reach quarter-finals of the Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour Czech Open. Last year he upset Timo BOLL in the gold medal contest while this time he needed full seven games to defeat Vladimir SAMSONOV. Actual No. 2 seed 15-year-old HARIMOTO won 4:3 (11:7 7:11 11:6 11:13 11:4 8:11 11:5)

Men`s Singles top seed Dimitrij OVTCHAROV beat Korea`s PARK Ganghyeon in five games to reach best eight. Englishman Liam PITCHFORD was two sets down 1:3 but won three in a row against Chinese ZHANG Yudong 4:3 (11:7 10:12 12:14 7:11 11:6 11:6 11:3).

Two more encounters have been extended to full distance and belonged to Germany`s Bastian STEGER and China`s ZHENG Peifeng who won their games against Ricardo WALTHER (GER) and Mizuki OIKAWA (JPN) respectively.

Actual No. 4 seed Marcos FREITAS the 2014 winner showed impressive play against No. 27 Maharu YOSHIMURA beating him in straight games. YOSHIMURA was 2015 runner-up. Austria`s Daniel HABESOHN defeated Kazakhstan`s Kirill GERASSIMENKO in five games while Germany`s Patrick FRANZISKA prevailed against No. 5 seed Denmark`s Jonathan GROTH after six sets.

Quarter-final pairs will be following: Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (Germany) vs. Liam PITCHFORD (England) Bastian STEGER (Germany) vs. ZHENG Peifeng (China) Marcos FREITAS (Portugal) vs. Daniel HABESOHN (Austria) Patrick FRANZISKA (Germany) vs. Tomokazu HARIMOTO (Japan).

Sabine WINTER from Germany will be only one Old Continent`s representative in the Women`s Singles quarter-finals. She created biggest upset yesterday eliminating Japan`s Hitomi SATO (No. 4 seed) while today she defeated Poland`s LI Qian (No. 11) in straight games. It was her fifth consecutive victory in four days counting three in the preliminary round. China`s WU Yang will be her next opponent.

Matilda EKHOLM from Sweden managed to catch Puerto Rico`s Adriana DIAZ being three games down but lost decisive set 11:5. DIAZ will play against No. 1 seed Kasumi ISHIKAWA from Japan.

Three German players were involved in the Men`s Doubles semi-finals but just one reached final Patrick FRANZISKA who is teamed up with Denmark`s Jonathan GROTH. Defending champions beat GROTH`s compatriot Anders LIND and Hungary`s Bence MAJOROS in straight games. The same score delivered Sweden`s pair Mattias FALCK/Kristian KARLSSON against Germany`s Ruwen FILUS/Ricardo WALTHER. FRANZISKA and GROTH eliminated Japan`s Tomokazu HARIMOTO/Yuto KIZUKURI in the quarter-finals.

Romania`s Elizabeta SAMARA/Bernadette SZOCS lost to Japan`s Kasumi ISHIKAWA/Mima ITO No. 2 seeds in the Women`s Doubles quarter-finals. Croatia`s SUN Jiayi and Singapore`s ZENG Jian will face China`s LIUGaoyang/ZHANG Rui in the gold medal contest.

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