On the second day of play at the table tennis tournament in Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium the Round two in Singles was on the agenda.
Daniel HABESOHN of Austria no 32 seed beat CHEW Zhe Yu Clarence of Singapore 4:1 (11:7 11:9 11:8 6:11 12:10) to book his place in the Third round.
“I am very happy with my performance in the opening match for me. I handled the stress very well. There is always an extra pressure and danger in first matches. The adversary is much better then his rankings predicts. When you play against the Asian players the rankings are not most reliable indicators of adversaries quality and real level. Also they have an advantage of months of preparations on Asian soil. They are also very focused. CHEW improved his level in past year very much ” said HABESOHN.
CHEW has a very strong service game but HABESOHN managed to nullified it.
“That was the key to my success my return worked fine. I was well prepared for the duel. I did not make any easy mistake from the receive and on my service game I forced him to open. I played with lot of speed he never knew from where the ball will come and that was very good performance ” added Daniel.
In the next Round HABESOHN will meet Marcos FREITAS of Portugal no. 16 seed.
“Now is time for relaxing watching videos and searching for the right tactics for FREITAS.”
In the same round Emmanuel LEBESSSON of France overcame Andrej GACINA of Croatia in straight games (11:6 11:8 12:10 13:11). Panagiotis GIONIS of Greece added another victory to his record. He beat Ahmet SALEH of Egypt 4:1 (13:11 11:7 9:11 11:3 11:6). Swede Anton KALLBERG overcame Nikhil KUMAR from USA 4:0 (11:7 11:5 11:6 11:5).
The list of success for Europeans goes on with Darko JORGIC of Slovenia who went through seven long games before he beat Alvaro ROBLES of Spain 4:3 (11:2 12:10 5:11 9:11 5:11 15:13 11:8).
“I had a magnificent start. I made a quick 2:0 lead and I moved very well. On the other side ROBLES kept on looking for his rhythm and eventually he found it. He started to play better and safer. I could made to 3:1 but failed to come forward with 2:1 and 7:4. After 2:3 I had to change the tactics and start playing on longer rallies. I recovered to level and at 8:3 in seventh game finally I was calm and my head was at the right place so I played safely point by point. It paid out and I am among top 32!” said JORGIC.
Paul DRINKHALL GBR overcame Robert GARDOS of Austria 4:1 (13:11 6:11 11:4 12:10 11:6).
“Today’s match was a very hard one a lot of tactical changes but i felt i moved very well and was able to be the more aggressive player ” said DRINKHALL.
SPAIN’S Maria XIAO was in charge of one of the biggest upsets. She eliminated seed no. 17 SOO Wai Yam Minnie of Hong Kong 4:2 (7:11 11:6 11:8 11:8 8:11 11:9). Rachel MORET of Switzerland beat Georgina POTA of Hungary 4:1 (11:9 14:12 11:7 7:11 11:9) and YUAN Jia Nan of France beat no 23 seed Bruna TAKAHASHI of Brazil 4:0 (11:8 11:7 11:6 11:8).
