by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
They experienced a three matches to one defeat at the hands of the outfit formed by Portugal’s José Pedro Francisco who joined forces with the United States combination of Adar Alguetti and Keenan Southall.
Mainstay
Mainstay of the upset was Adar Alguetti; he accounted for Meng Fanbo in the second match of the contest (11-6, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9) and Jannik Xu in the deciding fifth contest by the very narrowest of decisions (16-14, 9-11, 11-7, 10-12, 13-11).
Notably the one remaining win for the victors was recorded by José Pedro Francisco in the opening match of the engagement.
He accounted for Jannik Xu in four games (11-5, 9-11, 11-8, 14-12); the one success for the German outfit was recorded by Alexander Gerhiold, in the third match of the engagement, he defeated Keenan Southall (11-1, 11-1, 11-6).
Top three, top groups
Problems for the fourth seeded outfit, not for the top three teams; Japan, the top seeds, with Yu Kayama, Aoto Asazu and Takeru Kishiwa on duty finished in first place in their group as did the Slovenian formation of Tilen Cvetko, Darko Jorgic and Eric Paulin.
Likewise it was pole position for the outfit comprising Victor Liu of the United States who allied with the Chinese Taipei pairing of Li Hsin-Yang and Feng Yi-Hsin.
Again United States to the fore
Meanwhile, in the Cadet Boys’ Team event where there were four groups in the initial phase, the United States was once again to the fore.
Sharon Alguetti and Gal Alguetti, the top seeds, duly topped their group as did Germany’s Kay Stumper and Daniel Rinderer.
Also it was first place for the Croatian trio of Ivor Ban, Filip Borovnjak and Lovro Zovko as it was for the combination formed by Chile’s Gustavo Castillo and Croatia’s Leo Vekic.
Team events conclude
Play in the Junior Boys’ Team and Cadet Boys’ Team events conclude on Thursday 22nd September.
