Other Events | 22 Nov 2013
GRIGORIEV against all odds on Ekaterinburg
In the first round of the Men’s Singles event at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Russian Open in Ekaterinburg currently with no World ranking against their names, the Chinese trio of YIN Hang, ZHENG Peifeng and CHENG Jingqi continued their path of dest
In the first round of the Men’s Singles event at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Russian Open in Ekaterinburg currently with no World ranking against their names, the Chinese trio of YIN Hang, ZHENG Peifeng and CHENG Jingqi continued their path of destruction.
Each of the three teenagers caused upsets; all beat seeded adversaries, all ended the dreams of player s from the host nation. YIN Hang overcame Vasiliy LAKEEV, the no. 11 seed, in a hard fought seven games duel; ZHENG Peifeng accounted for Fedor KUZMIN, the no.13 seed, in five games, whilst CHENG Jingqi was the most impressive of all. He defeated Mikhail Paikov in four straight games.
However host nation showed that they can create few upsets of their own. Artur GRIGORIEV who had been required to compete in the qualification stage of proceedings caused the biggest upset of the round. He beat Japan’s Kenta MATSUDAIRA, the no.8 seed, in five games to reserve his place in the second round
Alexander SHIBAEV, the no.6 seed and Alexey LIVENTSOV, the no.7 seed, won all-Russian duels. SHIBAEV beat Ilya ZHIDOV, whilst LIVENTSOV defeated Sadi ISMAILOV.
Viktoria PAVLOVICH of Belarus reached second round after victory over Mika TSUCHIDA of Japan and Yana NOSKOVA overcame Haruka SAKAI of Japan. Asian players booked remaining 14 places in the draw.
