2019 ITTF Challenge Belgosstrakh Belarus Open
Frenchman Emmanuel LEBESSON clinched the title in the Men’s Singles Event at the 2019 ITTF Challenge Belgosstrakh Belarus Open in Minsk. Japan’s Hina HAYATA won the top prize in Women’s Singles. In women’s doubles the Japanese pairing of Satsuki ODO and Saki SHIBATA won gold and in the men’s doubles China’s XU Haidong and ZHAO Zhaoyan finished at the top position.
Emmanuel LEBESSON occupied the top seeded position and his success was hard earned. At the semi-final stage he recovered from a two games to nil deficit to beat China’s XU Yingbin by the very narrowest of margins (6-11 5-11 11-6 7-11 11-3 11-4 11-9). The victory thus brought to an end the 16 match winning steak of the 18 year old which had started on Wednesday 16th October and four days later had resulted in the ITTF World Tour Polish Open title being secured.
Narrow margins but for the 2016 European champion a major confidence boost; in the final he beat Japan’s Yukiya UDA the no.7 seed and quarter-finalist earlier this in Portugal to seal the title. Impressively Emmanuel Lebesson succeeded in four straight games (12-10 12-10 13-11 11-5) and thus to an extent extracted national revenge. In the corresponding semi-final Yukiya UDA had ended the hopes of Tristan FLORE the no.12 seed (10-12 11-7 11-8 11-5 11-6).
LEBESSON secured his first ever men’s singles title on either the ITTF World Tour or at an ITTF Challenge Series tournament; his previous best being a semi-final finish in 2012 in Brazil and 2017 in the Czech Republic. Notably earlier this year he was a quarter-finalist in Oman
Moreover he becomes the first Frenchman to win an ITTF Challenge Series men’s singles title since the concept became an entity in its own right in January 2017 as opposed to being part of the ITTF World Tour.
The top seeds Saki SHIBATA partnering Satsuki ODO at the final hurdle beat Poland’s Ana WEGRZYN and Katarzyna WEGRZYN in four games (7-11 11-5 11-4 11-5).
