On the second day of play as the Group stage of the 2024 European Olympic Singles Qualification drew to a close there was a remarkable feat in the Men’s singles. Only one player seeded at the bottom of his group at position no. 4 not only secured his spot in the main draw but also emerged as the group winner. Kas VAN OOST from the Netherlands seeded 28th in Sarajevo achieved this by recording two wins and suffering a narrow 3-4 defeat ultimately earning his place in the knockout stage.
VAN OOST started his campaign strongly defeating Luka Mladenovic of Luxembourg 4-2 in the opening match and following it up with another 4-2 victory over Marios YIANGU of Cyprus. Despite a loss to the top seed in Group 11 Andreas LEVENKO VAN OOST pushed the Austrian player to a full seven-game match. Levenko also advanced to the second stage.
Among the tournament favorites Alvaro ROBLES of Spain progressed to the knockout stage without encountering much trouble and will enjoy a bye in the opening round tomorrow. From the same group Vladislav URSU of Moldova upset the rankings to move forward while Ioannis SGOUROPOULOS of Greece failed to secure a victory.
The no. 2 seed Ovidiu IONESCU secured his place in the next stage with two wins while Ibrahim GUNDUZ of Türkiye eliminated the favorite Borgar HAUG of Norway from further contention.
Daniel HABESOHN of Austria notched three wins to secure his ticket to the next stage and Juan PEREZ of Spain also progressed with one win less.
In Group D WANG Yang of Slovakia and Adam SZUDI from Hungary progressed to the knockout stage as expected by the rankings.
In Group E Samuel KULCZYCKI of Poland advanced as the first from the group thanks to a better game ratio while the no. 5 seed Eduard IONESCU of Romania progressed as the second.
Milosz REDZIMSKI of Poland dominated his group with three 4-0 wins to secure his place in the knockout stage while Lubomir JANCARIK of Czechia followed suit as predicted by the rankings.
From the lower-ranked groups Martin ALLEGRO of Belgium Dimitrije LEVAJAC of Serbia in Group G Mihai BOBOCICA of Italy and Yaroslav ZHMUDENKO of Ukraine in Group H Panagiotis GIONIS of Greece and Cedric NUYTINICK of Belgium in Group I Paul DRINKHALL of England and Niagol STOYANOV of Italy in Group J and Lubomir PISTEJ of Slovakia and Benedek OLAH of Finland in Group L all advanced to the next stage.
The 2024 European Olympic Singles Qualification is currently playing in Sarajevo.
