The Peninsula
Frenchman Alexandre Cassin overcame Finland's Benedek Olah 4-3 (4-11, 11-7, 12-10, 9-11, 12-14, 11-7, 12-10) in an exhilarating preliminary round clash to book a date with 2015 men's singles champion, on the opening day of the 25th edition of the Qatar Open, yesterday.
At the Aspire Academy today, Cassin will meet the top seed, Belarusian Vladimir Samsonov who moved into the second round of the ITTF World Tour Platinum event with a bye.
China’s Zhou Qihao also moved through to the second preliminary round in the men’s singles qualification draw after negotiating a tricky encounter against Belarusian opponent Aliaksandr Khanin 4-1 (11-9, 11-7, 10-12, 11-7, 13-11).
Elsewhere, Belgium’s Martin Allegro outclassed Turkish counterpart Ibrahim Gunduz 4-0 (11-8, 11-9, 15-13, 14-12) with Spain’s Alvaro Robles, Hungary’s Bence Majoros and Serbia’s Aleksandar Karakasevic all prevailing in their respective fixtures.
The two Qatari players competing in the afternoon session both tasted defeat and with it an opening stage elimination in Doha. Mohammed Abdulwahhab was seen off in straight games by Uzbekistan’s Zokhid Kenjaev on table 1 (11-4, 11-7, 11-5, 11-6) while Fahed Almughanne suffered the same fate in his meeting with India’s Amalraj Anthony (11-5, 11-3, 11-5, 11-7).
Only two further encounters scheduled for the session were played out as Russia’s Kirill Skachkov and France’s Tristan Flore accounted for Iraq’s Ameer Al-Nuaimi (11-7, 11-7, 11-5, 11-2) and Hong Kong China’s Ng Pak Nam (11-4, 11-6, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9) respectively.
A tight affair which required the full seven-game distance to find a winner, China’s Xiang Peng has survived a gruelling preliminary round 1 contest against French opponent Can Akkuzu (11-9, 8-11, 11-5, 7-11, 11-3, 13-15, 11-6) to extend his stay in the men’s singles race.
Benedikt Duda was in imperious mood against India’s Jeet Chandra, as he beat the Asian in straight games (11-3, 11-4, 11-5, 11-7) in under 22 minutes.
However, the session was marred by a number of withdrawals due to injury – Czech Republic’s Pavel Sirucek and Italy’s Leonardo Mutti both dropped out giving Belarussian Pavel Platonov and Senegal’s Ibrahima Diaw default entries into the next round.
Swedish prodigy Truls Moregard was in action against China’s Fang Bo and it was all about the fiery shots here at the Aspire Academy, with the match going to a seventh game decider. Eventually, Moregard came out on top, winning 4-3 (11-4, 9-11, 11-9, 7-11, 10-12, 11-4, 12-10) in a 54 minute epic.
Germany’s Ricardo Walther meanwhile had to deal with the challenge of Chew Zhe Yu Clarence, winning 4-2 (11-4, 8-11, 12-10, 11-13, 11-6, 11-7) after the Singaporean gave him a serious run for his money.
China’s Yan An and Zhou Yu started the proceedings in Doha with major wins against India’s Harmeet Desai and Romania’s Ovidiu Ionescu respectively.
Yan An needed no more than 38 minutes to see off the Indian, winning 4-1 (11-6, 10-12, 13-11, 11-5, 11-9). For Zhou Yu, it was more of a contest as he beat his European opponent 4-2 (8-11, 8-11, 11-1, 11-6, 11-5, 11-3).