Korea Republic dominate last 16 of Men's Doubles

by Simon Daish

Majority of Last Eight Places for Korea

The Men’s Doubles competition has taken an interesting shape, as three Korea Republic partnerships are still in the event and only one Japanese pair is left standing.

Korea’s Jang Woojin and Lim Jonghoon were forced into a difficult position when their opponents Frane Kojic (Croatia) and Alvaro Robles (Spain) took the opening two games of their last 16 match, and had it not been for a great recovery from the Korean duo then events could have played out very differently.

Jang and Lim won the third end in deuce before adding two more, overcoming Kojic and Robles (5-11, 6-11, 13-11, 11-6, 11-8) to bring the battle to a close.

The only other five game encounter also featured Korean players, as Kim Minhyeok combined well with Park Ganghyeon to take down Belgium’s Robin Devos and Cedric Nuytinck. This tie also saw the pairing from Korea Republic come from 0-2 behind to win three games on the bounce, with Devos and Nuytinck faltering when it mattered the most.

Back from a painful defeat in the Men’s Singles competition, Cho Eonrae had better luck in the Men’s Doubles as he teamed up with Park Jeongwoo to ensure that Korea Republic would have three pairs in the quarter-finals. Cho and Park won three straight against Germany’s Kilian Ort and Qiu Dang, with all three ends finishing 11-8 to the Koreans.

Japan’s Last Hope

Yuya Oshima and Kenta Matsudaira are the final Japanese representatives in the Men’s Doubles after they successfully negotiated France’s Romain Lorentz and Andrea Landrieu, despite the latter of the two teams having held a 0-1 advantage.

That is where Japan’s luck ran out, as Tomoya Fujimura and Kazuhiro Yoshimura exited to home duo, Tomas Konecny and Dimitrij Prokopcov 1-3, much to the delight of the Czech fans.

Czechs Checking Back In

CECHOVA Dana, MATELOVA Hana ITTF_WT_CzechOpen_20160902_212625_D72_0902 — Keeping the home fans happy: Dana Cechova (left) and Hana Matelova into the quarter-finals (Photo: Jan Brychta)

The Czech Republic will also feature in the quarter-finals of the Women’s Doubles event, after two of the three partnerships won on day three.

Czech duo Dana Cechova and Hana Matelova booked their spot in the next stage with a 3-1 defeat of Linda Bergstrom and Daniela Moskovits (both Sweden).

Karin Adamcova and her partner Aneta Kucerova are also through after they won by the same scoreline against Hungarian opposition, Dora Madarasz and Szandra Pergel.

However, there was to be no hat trick of victories for the Czech supporters as Renata Strbikova and Lenka Harabaszova lost out to the German pairing of Kristin Silbereisen and Sabine Winter.

Indian Duet in Perfect Harmony

Mouma Das and Manika Batra have ensured India’s presence in the last eight following their fantastic performance against Hitomi Sato and Honoka Hashimoto of Japan.

Both pairs exchanged alternating wins for the opening four games, with very little separating the two sides. But there had to be a victor and it was Das and Batra who took the honours in the fifth end (5-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-8, 12-10).

Rather unexpectedly, there will be only the one Asian team up in the quarters and maybe even more surprising is the fact that it is the Indian partners Mouma Das and Manika Batra who hold the hopes of a continent on their shoulders, as they hope to pass Chantal Mantz and Wan Yuan of Germany for a place in the last four.