Other Events | 28 Mar 2014
Nice day for POLCANOVA in Magdeburg
Twenty year-old Sofia POLCANOVA was one of heroes of the third day at GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour, German Open in Magdeburg. She managed to beat in Round of 32 Korean YANG Haeun, World`s. no 20, playing six games. Austrian women lost first two sets, bu
Twenty year-old Sofia POLCANOVA was one of heroes of the third day at GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour, German Open in Magdeburg. She managed to beat in Round of 32 Korean YANG Haeun, World`s. no 20, playing six games. Austrian women lost first two sets, but in next four played fantastic – 4:2 (4:11, 9:11, 13:11, 12:10, 11:9, 11:8). No matter how she will play tomorrow against Margaryta PESOTSKA, she will again improve her ITTF ranking position. In last updating she moved 26 places up, from no. 86 to no. 60. Ukrainian PETOTSKA defeated former individual European champion, the host player WU Jiaduo 4:1 (11:7, 11:8, 10:12, 11:9, 11:9).
Korean CHO Hala (no. 144) created the biggest surprise of the day, surpassing no. 2 seed Dutch women LI Jiao in five sets 4:1 (11:8, 11:8, 11:9, 11:13, 11:9). Georgina POTA and LI Qiangbing played one of most exiting today`s matches as Hungarian won in seven games 4:3 (8:11, 11:9, 11:6, 9:11, 11:9, 10:12, 12:10). POTA later beat Mima ITO from Japan 4:1 (11:8, 11:7, 4:11, 11:4, 11:4) to progress in last 16.
Good defender Irene IVANCAN overcame LEE I-Chen in seven games. Individual medalists from 2013 LIEBHER ECH were successful in Women`s Round of 32: LI Fen, SHAN Xiaona and HAN Ying. Two Berlin`s players will meet in next stage tomorrow: SHAN against IVANCAN. Totally ten European players reached women`s Round of 16.
Austrian Steffen FEGERL, World`s no 64, created the biggest upset in Men`s Round of 64, beating no. 8 CHUANG Chih Yuan 4:1 (12:10, 11:9, 11:9, 6:11, 11:5). Niederosterreich`s player had one more big fight after that, but lost from Tiago APOLONIA, despite managing to prolong the game to 7th set after 3:0 lead for Portuguese.
Two biggest host stars in absence of Timo BOLL, Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and Patrick BAUM easily won their first two matches, but they will meet tomorrow in battle for the quarter-final. Their compatriot, world`s no. 100 Steffen MENGEL joined them among the best 16 after he defeated Chinese ZHOU Kai in six games.
It was a bad day for the Russians. All four lost their Round of 64 encounters: Alexander SHIBAEV, Kirill SKACHKOV, Grigory VLASOV and Alexey LIVENSTOV.
World`s no. 113 Tomas KONECNY surprised no. 15 Japanese Koki NIWA 4:1 (8:11, 11:6, 11:6, 11:3, 11:5).
Men`s top seed WANG Hao lost just one set in his two matches. Seven European players in total reached men`s Round of 16 and among them are Vladimir SAMSONOV, Michael MAZE and Par GERELL.
Women`s no. 1 seed in doubles event PARK Youngsook and YANG Haeun (South Korea) was eliminated in opening round by host players Nadine BOLLMEIER and WU Jiaduo. No. 2 pair Hong Kong`s LEE Ho Ching and NG Wing Nam also had a hard job but managed to beat Iulia NECULA and Bernadete SZOCS in five games.
Sofia POLCANOVA completed her successful day winning double`s Round of 16 match, playing alongside with Amelie SOLJA.
Swedish players Kristian and Mattias KARLSSON overcame Chinese duet, former individual world champion WANG Hao and LYU Xiang in straight games at the start of main draw of the double`s event.
