World Championships | 1 Oct 2022

Double joy for Poland and France in Chengdu

On the second day of play at the 2022 ITTF World Team Championships Finals in Chengdu teams Poland and France recorded wins in both Men’s and Women’s Events.

In Group 5 Men, Poland is at the top with Sweden, with two wins each. In the last remaining match in group stage they will meet each other. Poland maintain their perfect record with a 3-0 win over Australia.

Samuel KULCZYCKI, Milosz REDZIMSKI and Maciej KUBIK overcame Dillon CHAMBERS, Nicholas LUM and Finn LUU. Only REDZIMSKI faced pressure in full five games duel against LUM. KULCZYCKI and KUBIK both resolved their matches in straight games.

"We are very happy because we won two matches. We pass the group now with the question if we were the number one or two in the group. But now, we have won the two matches, I feel very happy,” said KULCZYCKI.

KUBIK added: "We just practiced today, and now we will have a rest. Also, we will prepare strategy for the next adversary."

Sweden accounted for England in four matches duel. Liam PITCHFORD suffered his first defeat against Truls MOREGARDH.

"We played a great match. 3-1 of England is very good. PITCHFORD is the number one so it's always thought to be very happy with that. Pitchford was very strong. It's not an easy situation. So, we're very satisfied and I'm looking forward for the next match into this," said MOREGARDH.

Liam PITCHFORD was the only to score for England in the match against Anton KALLBERG, but he lost to Truls in fourth match. Kristian KARLSSON beat David MCBEATH.

Team France defeated Kazakhstan 3-0 led by young LEBRUN brothers. Felix defeated Kirill GERASSIMENKO in the opening duel of the match.

"My coach said to us that we would change the players today, so I knew it and didn't surprise to start this morning. I feel stressed after the beginning of the match, just a bit, "stated Felix.

His brother Alexis defeated Denis ZHOLUDEY whilst Emmanuel LEBESSON beat Aidos KENZHIGULOV

"Our next two opponents will be Germany and India in this order. I think both of these matches would be hard for us. We will have tomorrow a great day. So we will have more practice before playing Germany after tomorrow. So we know, again, Japanese could be a big fight. We will try to do our best, and we will see which position we can stay in from the group and hope to a minimum to catch one of these two games," said LEBESSON.

In Women’s Event Poland beat Uzbekistan in long distance match.

Katarzyna WEGRZYN: "It was a very tough game for us, but we are very happy that we managed to do it. For the next matches, we will do our best and we hope to play good matches. Chengdu is a very nice place, and everything is fine. The organization is very good and we enjoy being here."

Anna WEGRZYN beat both Markhabo MAGDIEVA and Asel ERKEBAEVA. Asel lost to Katarzyna as well.

For Germany it was a close call but the leaders in Group 5 has seen off a tenacious Team India with a 3-2 win. HAN Ying’s defensive skills proved crucial, with the World No.8 locking up two wins along the way. Nina MITTELHAM beats Manika BATRA.

"We are really happy that we won. It was our first table tennis team match here and the first match is always difficult. I think match by match, we will play better to get in good shape. And then at the end of the championship, we all show our best. So, it doesn't matter," said Nina.

Upset of the day so far, was created by Italy. European team beat Brazil 3-1 with Giorgia PICCOLIN as the backbone of the team, picking up two wins including a career best performance defeating World No.21 Bruna TAKAHASHI. Debora VIVARELLI beats Giulia STAKAHASHI.

"We knew we had a chance today to win this match. We didn't expect Giorgia to win Bruna, but we know she has the chance and she's very brave. My match was also very closed. I knew I had to win this one. It was a thrilling match at the end," said VIVARELLI."Yesterday against Hong Kong, we knew we could enjoy the match. We didn't have anything to lose. And it was good that we could start and play a little bit before the match with Brazil. Today we knew we could win. So probably that was the difference between yesterday and today."

France gets the their first win in Chengdu and the first of the Day 2 by defeating South Africa in straight matches.

Prithika PAVADE succeeded against Danisha PATEL: "I think we played really well. It was a good start for the tournament, We should focus on each ball to finish the match as quick as possible."

Charlotte LUTZ followed her path by beating Zodwa MAPHANGA: "We are always together when we play. We like to focus together and winning together. So I think it's a good experience."

Team Portugal was forced to go full distance against Sweden. YU Fu recorded both wins against Matilda HANSSON and Linda BERGSTROM, SHAO Jieni beat Matilda.

Team Czech Republic recorded first win in the match against Egypt. Hana HATELOVA overcame Dina MESHREF: "At the moment, we are feeling great. We won, but in 2 matches, we were very close. I knew that I could play a bit more with calmer vibes. We are going to play against India tomorrow, so now we can take rest and prepare for tomorrow."