Other Events | 29 Jan 2016
German Open: OVTCHAROV reached Round of 16, but extended full distance by ASSAR
Photo: Courtesy ITTF
No. 2 seed beat Egyptian player in thrilling Round of 32 clash.
Two German stars progressed with different fillings into the Round of 16 of 2016 ITTF World Tour German Open (Super) in Berlin: second seed Dimitrij OVTCHAROV was stretched to full distance by Egyptian Omar ASSAR, while Timo BOLL had an easy job against Frane KOJIC. Six times individual European champion will face tommorow another Croatian player Andrej GACINA who prevailed against Korean JOO Saehyuk in six games.
Six European players secured their places among the best 16 in the Men`s Singles event. Marcos FREITAS did it in superb style against Japanese Yuto MATAMATSU, as well as WANG Zengyi from Poland, who beat GAO Ning in straight games. Vladimir SAMSONOV overcame Tiago APOLONIA in all-European clash.
Top seed and actual World champion MA Long defeated Dane Jonathan GROTH in straight games, while reigning Olympic champion ZHANG Jike needed one set more against Panagiotis GIONIS.
Five representative of Old Continent entered Women`s Singles Round of 16 and all five lost their matches. Two hosts HAN Ying and Petrissa SOLJA played full seven games against YANG Haeun (Korea) and Ito MIMA (Japan) respectively. Both lost sixth set in their encounters by a narrow margin.
Three European pairs will play in the Men`s Doubles event: Ruwen FILUS/Ricardo WALTHER (Germany), TAN Ruiwu (Croatia)/WANG Zengyi (Poland) and Alexey LIVENTSOV/Mikhail PAIKOV (Russia).
