At Sunday evening, the Swiss Open tournament in Lausanne concluded with a 4:1-victory of Vladimir SAMSONOV over top seeded, Dimitri OVTCHAROV in the final of the Men’s Singles Event. The two teammates played the Champions League match in Orenburg at Frida,
At Sunday evening, the Swiss Open tournament in Lausanne concluded with a 4:1-victory of Vladimir SAMSONOV over top seeded, Dimitri OVTCHAROV in the final of the Men’s Singles Event. The two teammates played the Champions League match in Orenburg at Friday and took the plane immediately after the match to reach the small city of Lausanne, 3500 km away from Orenburg.
Beside SAMSONOV (who played for the first time in Lausanne) and OVTCHAROV, few more world class players participated: JOO Sae Hyuk, who suffered defeat in the semifinals against OVTCHAROV and Adrien MATTENET who was surprisingly beaten by WANG Eugene Zhen from Canada in quarterfinals. Furthermore, the Swedish legend Jörgen PERSSON played for the second time. He stretched JOO to his limits in the second round and was beaten by the narrowed margin in the seventh set.
In the final of the women category, the unranked chinese YANG Xiaoxin showed no merci against the hungarian player Georgina POTA and recorded a 4:1 win. In the semifinal, YANG had already beaten Iveta VACENOVSKA who reached her career top in the World ranking in february (WR 24).
Two Swiss girls delighted the crowd: Rahel ASCHWANDEN (WR 495) who is currently living at the WSA in Vienna and the Swiss champion Rachel Moret (WR 401). Aschwanden beat Linda CREEMERS (WR 147) and MORET had a hard fight against VACENOVSKA, she lost 2:4 after leading 2:1 in sets.
The top players and other participants were delighted by the small but special tournament in Lausanne. The Swiss spectators, not beeing used to the world class table tennis, showed their enthusiam with full harted support. At Saturday evening, a players party was organized with traditional Swiss meals to taste. Austrian player Matthias HABESOHN stated: “The dinner was World class!“, Adrien MATTENET promised to persuade more French players to come next year and Vladmir SAMSONOV said „thanks“ to the spectators for fantastic atmosphere.
Referee and Deputy referees were women, so tournament run by female power Katja BRAND (Switzerland) and Isabelle BEUMIER (Belgium).
Men’s Singles – Final : Vladimir SAMSONOV (Belarus) s. Dimitri OVTCHAROV (Germany) 4:1. – Semifinals: OVTCHAROV s. JOO See Huyk (Korea) 4:2. SAMSONOV s. WANG Eugene Zhen (Canada) 4:2. – Quarterfinals: OVTCHAROV s. Admir DURANSPAHIC (Bosnia and Herzegovina) 4:0. SAMSONOV s. Marcos MADRID (mexico) 4:2. Zhen WANG s. Adrien MATTENET (France) 4:3. Joo s. Dominik HABESOHN (Ö) 4:2. Round of Sixteen: MATTENET s. Nicola MOHLER (Switzerland) 4:1. OVTCHAROV s. HU Jiashun (China/Rio Star Muttenz) 4:0. SAMSONOV s. Benjamin BROSSIER (Fr) 4:1. Joo s. Jörgen PERSSON (Sd) 4:3. DURANSPAHIC s. Jérémy PETIOT (France) 4:2. HABESOHN s. Mehdi BOULASSA (France) 4:1. ZHEN Wang s. Adam PATTANTYUS (Hungary) 4:2. MADRID s. Omry Ben ARI (Israel) 4:1.
Women’s Singles – Final: YANG Xiaoxin (France) s. Georgina POTA (Hungary) 4:1. Semifinals: YANG s. Iveta VACENOVSKA (Czech Republic) 4:1. POTA s. Carola GRUNDISCH (France) 4:0. – Quarterfinals: VACENOVSKA s. Rachel MORET (Switzerland) 4:2. YANG s. Rahel ASCHWANDEN (Switzerland) 4:0. POTA s. Dana CECHOVA (Czech Republic) 4:2. GRUNDISCH s. BARTHEL Zhenqi (Germany) 4:3.
(by Thomas NEUENSCHWANDER, courtesy STTA)
Photo: Vladi SAMSONOV during awarding ceremony in Lausanne (courtesy STTA)
