The penultimate day of matches in the group phase at the ITTF World Championships in Busan did not bring surprises. In seven out of eight groups favorites concluded the day with four wins topping their groups: China Germany Korea France Japan Sweden and Portugal. The only exception is Group 7 where Slovenia currently holds the top position. The team ranked 12th in the world has already surpassed Brazil with one match less. While Brazil played all four matches and won two Slovenia already has three wins in three matches. Today Darko JORGIC Deni KOZUL and Peter HRIBAR overcame Canada. Tomorrow they will face Madagascar while Singapore will try to beat Canada to surpass Brazil for the second position in the group.
In Group 1 where China is at the top Belgium recorded their first win in three matches. Today they defeated Cuba with all three players—Adrien RASSENFOSSE Cedric NUYTINCK and Martin ALLEGRO—posting victories.
In Group 2 Germany remained unbeaten in all four matches. In their last match of the opening stage they overcame England 3-0. Dang QIU prevailed against Samuel WALKER at the beginning of the match.
“It was good for us to finish on top in the group stage. For the rest of the tournament it’s important to secure the seeding position. I don’t think it’s a fact that England prepared less. We’re just a strong team. It’s tough to beat us. We have very strong players and everyone is doing more than I can ask for ” said Dimitrij OVTCHAROV who beat Tom JARVIS.
“We were very determined to secure the victory today since it was a match for the number one spot in the group stage. On the other hand they didn’t play with their top player Liam PITCHFORD today. Since he has an injury that gave us an advantage on the setup. We are fighting for a medal. We will take anything but gold would be best ” commented OVTCHAROV on his win.
Patrick FRANZISKA dropped only one game against Paul DRINKHALL. “We feel very happy and relieved. It was our big goal to secure first place in the qualification for the seeding. More important than that we played better and better as every match went on. Today all three of us played really well ” said FRANZISKA.
Korea secured their top place in Group 3 whilst Poland with a win over New Zealand currently occupies second place with one round yet to play tomorrow. In today’s duel Jakub DYJAS Samuel KULCZYCKI and Maciej KUBIK overcame Maxwell HENDERSON Timothy CHOI and Alfred DELA PENA in straight matches.
France was heading towards the knockout stage of the competition at full speed. In the last match in their group against Australia they played without the LEBRUN brothers but that did not affect their performance. Simon GAUZY Lilian BARDET and Jules ROLLAND sealed the duel in three matches to finish the group stage unbeaten at the top with wins over Austria Denmark Australia and Algeria.
Jules ROLLAND said “It is great for Alexis and Felix to have an opportunity to take some rest today. We have one day for rest tomorrow so we think we’ll be ready for the round of 16.” Simon GAUZY added “We’re very excited for the round of 16. We practice every day and have a very strong team spirit so we’re looking forward. We can’t wait after tomorrow and we’re going to have Korean BBQ tomorrow.” Lilian BARDET expressed “Personally I’m very happy about my win today because it’s my first match for my national team. It was a really close match and we did a very great job 3-0 against Australia. Now we’re happy to be in the round of 16 and will prepare for the upcoming match.”
In the same group Denmark overcame Algeria 3-1 with Jonathan GROTH winning both his matches against Abdelbasset CHAICHI and Mehdi BOULOUSSA. Anders LIND also beat Mehdi. Tomorrow they will play against Austria.
Jonathan GROTH said “Right now we’re happy to have won our match. We need to recover now and look forward to tomorrow’s match. We’ve actually played quite a few times against Austria before who are our last opponent for the knockout qualification. They are a very strong team with good players. It will be a tough match. Last time we lost 3-1.”
France played all four matches and remained unbeaten while Denmark Austria Australia and Algeria have one remaining match each. Denmark and Austria currently share the second position.
In Group 8 Portugal concluded the first stage of the competition unbeaten in four matches. Their latest “victim” was Thailand. Tiago APOLONIA Diogo CARVALHO and Joao GERALDO all posted victories.
Tiago APOLONIA commented “So far we’re very happy that we finished the group stage in first place and now we have one and a half days to rest and prepare for the next match. We’ll start thinking about the next round after a break.” Joao GERALDO added “For today I think I could have played a little bit better even though I achieved a good result. I tried to be more relaxed but I think I felt a bit of pressure and tension for this game to try to get a win before the final stage.”
