Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour Hungarian Open in Budapest
At the Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour Hungarian Open in Budapest Vladimir SAMSONOV and t Pavel PLATONOV reached the final of the Mne’s Doubles Event. In the semi final the duo accounted for fellow qualifiers the Swedish pairing of Kristian KARLSSON and Mattias KARLSSON (13-11 1-11 11-8 6-11 11-6). They become the first ever pairing from Belarus to reach such a final in the now 23 year history of the ITTF World Tour.
“It was a very intense match going to the full distance. We had the advantage when we played short-short and then started the rally; we tried to keep it that way. The key moment was the start of the deciding game we had a good start so we could even decide to take a few more risks. Now in the final; bring it on!” said Pavel Platonov
Tomorow Pavel PLATONOV and Vladimir SAMSONOV will face FAN Zhendong and YU Ziyang the no.6 seeds. In the penultimate round they accounted for the top seeded combination formed by Germany’s Patrick FRANZISKA and Denmark’s Jonathan GROTH (11-6 11-5 11-7).
In the counterpart Women’s Doubles event CHEN Ke and WANG Manyu the no.7 seeds beat the no.2 seeds the host nation’s Georgina POTA and Sweden’s Matilda EKHOLM (11-6 11-5 11-2); in the opposite half of the draw CHEN Xingtong and SUN Yingsha the no.3 seeds ended the hopes of Hong Kong. They accounted for DOO Hoi Kem and LEE Ho Ching the top seeds (11-4 8-11 11-5 11-6).
“It did not go the way we planned; their game plan was a better than ours. We played well just we could not soak up the constant pressure from them.” said Georgina POTA
