Other Events | 29 Apr 2014

Croatia upset Hong Kong!

Croatia was in charge for another big upset at the ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Championships in the Japanese capital city of Tokyo. Hong Kong seeded no. seven lost against no. nine seed Croatia. Andrej GACINA beat JIANG Tianyui and TANG Peng to secure 3:1 vic

Croatia was in charge for another big upset at the ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Championships in the Japanese capital city of Tokyo. Hong Kong seeded no. seven lost against no. nine seed Croatia. Andrej GACINA beat JIANG Tianyui and TANG Peng to secure 3:1 victory for his team. Day earlier he was the instrumental in Croatia’s victory against Denmark with 3:0 win in the opening match against Michael MAZE.

“MAZE had a great problem at the very beginning of the match. He made mistakes in the service game, I gained 4 easy points and it was quick 1:0. TAN Ruiwu plays in perfect shape here, he is focused, so we did not face any obstacles later in the match against Denmark,” explained GACINA.

KOLAREK lost his duel against STERNBERG, but GACINA praised his ability to find the way to rise from the “hole” as he said. “It is remarkable how he recovered for today’s match against Hong Kong. He beat WONG Chun Ting in five games,” added GACINA. ”They were favorites and it was very close. My two opening games against JIANG Tianyui concluded by narrow margin; in fourth I save two set balls…”

GACINA explained that his engagement in Grenzau helped him to find stability and focus at such big events. “I beat BOLL in the league as well as BAUM. That helps me a lot. Also I work a lot on my mental stability with the expert.”

Portugal is unbeaten and that is the expected outcome of the duels against Hungary and France. The player who took the crown at the DHS 2014 Europe Cup earlier this year, Marcos FREITAS recorded two victories today against French adversaries. He beat Simon GAUZY and Adrien MATTENET. “France has young team, but already very experienced. Hardly that we could hide something from them in terms of tactics. We played so many times against each other before. I started good against GAUZY, had 10:6 in second and lost it. However, I managed to find my focus again. Tiago was two games down before he recovered to overcame MATTENET. LEBESSON proved once again how god he is against lefthanders. He beat Joao MONTEIRO, but I never lost against Adrien, and I believe that in worst case APOLONIA will be able to seal the match against GAUZY.”

MARCOS added that he had to take good rest to be ready for a big showdown against Greece tomorrow. “That is going to be hard match. The re-run of the Team’s European Championships that we lost. Seeded no. two in Group A, Austria is unbeaten after two days of the competition. Much of the credit goes to the Robert GARDOS’s account. GARDOS added third victory to his clean sheet. Yesterday he accounted twice for Serbia and today he beat Kirill SKACHKOV of Russia.
“The start was very important. Tactically I attacked SKACHKOV in the early stages of the games and that gave me advantage in every set. He was not determined and made mistakes. Maybe 3:0 looks easy, but I think that yesterday’s defeat of team of Russia against Poland gave us advantage. When you start like that the tournament it is so hard to come back. And, of course, the win gives you wings, like it was the case with us. Good start against Serbia worked in our favor,” explained GARDOS.

Tomorrow Austria will play against Brazil. “I respect their team. They are young, very dangerous since they are not under pressure. On top of all they are here after series of very good results. It is going to be hard match.”

The team, who managed to recover after defeat, was Serbia. They held the grip and finally succeeded in thrilling five matches duel against Brazil. It was first victory for Aleksandar KARAKASEVIC after he joined the team after 12 months break. “I am back, but still there is big disproportion between my desires and my abilities. I want so much to play good, my I am far from my old shape,” admitted KARAKASEVIC.

However hero of the day was Zolt PETE who beat Cazuo MATSUMOTO and Gustavo TSUBOI. No. two seed Germany easily prevailed against Denmark. Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and Timo BOLL, joined by young Patrick FRANZISKA are hardly challenged so far at the Championships. Without MAZE in the team, Jonathan GROTH, Mikkel HINDERSSON and Morten RASMUSSEN could not produce serious threat to mighty German team.

In the Group D Asian teams prevailed this morning. Korea Republic beat Spain, Belarus suffered defeat again, this time by the hands of players from Korea DPR and Taipei overcame Sweden.