Other Events | 14 Aug 2019

Bulgaria Open: Two rising stars reach main draw

2019 ITTF World Tour Asarel Bulgaria Open: Darko JORGIC beat Andrej GACINA, Tomislav PUCAR overcame Stefan FEGERL

 

Two European rising stars, 21-year-old Slovenia’s Darko JORGIC (actual world no. 38) and 23-year-old Croatia’s Tomislav PUCAR (no. 34) have reached the main draw at the 2019 ITTF World Tour Asarel Bulgaria Open, as they beat two well experienced players Andrej GACINA (Croatia) and Stefan FEGERL (Austria) respectively, playing Men’s Singles - Preliminary Round 4. Both encounters have been decided after six games: JORGIC vs. GACINA 4:2 (11:5, 9:11, 11:7, 11:6, 6:11, 11:7), PUCAR vs. FEGERL 4:2 (11:8, 11:6, 7:11, 8:11, 11:4, 11:7).

 

Men’s Singles Preliminary Round 4 was also successful for Marcos FREITAS (Portugal), Ruwen FILUS (Germany) and KOU Lei (Ukraine), while just two European players won their ultimate rounds at the Women’s Singles: SHAO Jieni (Portugal) overcame Karin ADAMKOVA (Czech Republic) and HAN Ying (Germany) prevailed against Filippa BERGAND (Sweden), both times in straight sets. SHAO is going to play against no. 1 seed and 2017 champion Kasumi ISHIKAWA of Japan.

 

Masataka MORIZONO (Japan) surpassed two strong obstacles on his way to the main draw: first he eliminated Rares SIPOS of Romania after full seven games, then he eliminated France’s Irvin BERTRAND in six games. Japanese faces 2017 winner Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (Germany), no. 2 seed, in the Round of 32, while his compatriot Koki NIWA will play against Marcos FREITAS.

 

England’s Paul DRINKHALL extended China’s ZHENG Peifeng (China) to full distance, as Ganna GAPONOVA (Ukraine) and Barbora BALAZOVA (Slovakia) did against CHEN Szu-Yu (Chinese Taipei) and KIM Byeolnim (Korea) respectively in their Women’s Singles Preliminary Round 3.

 

More information: here