March 19, 2010
German Open: Petr Korbel Maintains Form
 Petr Korbel who accounted for Seiya Kishikawa in round three of the Men's Singles event Photo By: Ireneusz Kanabrodzki |
Courtesy of ITTF |
In recent months, the Czech star has not enjoyed the best of form on the ITTF Pro Tour but in Berlin, having negotiated the qualification stage successfully on the opening day, and clearly having adjusted to the conditions, he was approaching his best form in the late evening on the second day of action.
Three Upsets
Korbel was one of three players to beat higher world ranked opposition and there was almost a fourth.
Japan’s Jin Ueda, who had beaten China’s Hao Shuai, the no.4 seed in the opening round, continued his good form to end the adventures of Belgium’s Jean-Michel Saive, securing a five games victory.
German Success
Two upsets and the third brought joy to German fans with Christian Süss, having struggled in the opening round to beat the Czech Republic’s Tomas Konecny, found his rhythm quickly against the enigmatic Li Ching of Hong Kong.
Applauded from the start by the crowd, Süss, the no.22 seed recorded a very impressive five games victory over the no.14 seed.
Korean Duel
Three surprises and almost a fourth; in the all Korean battle between Yoon Jae Young, the no.25 seed and Ryu Seung Min, the no.12 seed, the former gained revenge for the defeat he had suffered in the final of the Men’s Singles event at the Chile Open in 2008.
Yoon Jae Young won in six games, or he thought he did; however, his racket failed the test at the conclusion of the duel and he was duly disqualified.
Ryu Seung Min progressed by default.
Chinese Quintet
Three third round upsets but no more.
Ominously the Chinese quintet of Ma Long, Wang Hao, Chen Qi, Zhang Jike and Xu Xin all booked third round places as did Korea’s Oh Sang Eun, Austria’s Chen Weixing, Japan’s Kaii Yoshida, Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan and Denmark’s Michael Maze.
Host Nation Successes
Meanwhile, for the host nation there was also success; in addition to Christian Süss, Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov secured places in the third round of the Men’s Singles event.
Doubles Trouble
Upsets in the Men’s Singles event and also in the Men’s Doubles competition where top seeds Singapore’s Gao Ning and Yang Zi departed at the first hurdle.
They were beaten by the combination of Portugal’s Marcos Freitas and Croatia’s Andrej Gacina, a partnership that came together by accident.
At the recent Qatar Open in Doha, both needed a partner, the joined forces and reached the semi-finals; in Berlin that good form continued.
Defeat for the top seeds but for the next three in line there were no such problems; all from China they duly reserved quarter-final places.
Three Pairs
Wang Hao in partnership with Xu Xin, Chen Qi alongside Ma Long and Hao Shuai in harness with Zhang Jike all emerged successful in their opening round duels.
Three Chinese pairs in the last eight; a warning has been sounded.
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