by Simon Daish

The Men’s Doubles pairing of Denmark’s Jonathan Groth and Germany’s Patrick Franziska have become standout names on tournament entry lists as of late, with the mixed nationality combination having picked up some big wins in recent weeks.

However, Jonathan Groth and Patrick Franziska were not able to replicate their recent successes at the 2016 Swedish Open in Stockholm, losing out to the Brazilian partnership of Hugo Calderano and Gustavo Tsuboi in the penultimate round of the competition.

Only three games were required to see Calderano and Tsuboi progress to the final, and while the three ends finished with close scorelines the duo from Brazil just had too much for Groth and Franziska (11-9, 11-8, 11-7).

Calderano and Tsuboi were of course Doubles partners when they represented Brazil’s Men’s Team at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro where they lost out to Korea Republic’s Lee Sangsu and Jeoung Youngsik, they may have been short of luck on that occasion but fast forward a few months and the Brazilian duo are just one match away from a potential World Tour title victory.

There was another interesting outcome from the other semi-finals encounter in the Men’s Doubles category as Antoine Hachard and Stéphane Ouaiche of France saw off the Japanese team of Kenta Matsudaira and Jin Ueda.

The two partnerships were involved in a fierce contest which went right down to the last game; after taking the first end in deuce Hachard and Ouaiche soon managed to establish a 2-1 lead in the match with the first pair to register three game wins guaranteeing their spot in the final, and despite Matsudaira’s and Ueda’s best efforts and the capture of game four it was the French duo who would go on to claim the win (12-10, 8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8).

With the semi-finals stage now concluded the 2016 Swedish Open is down to its final two Men’s Doubles partnerships: Hugo Calderano and Gustavo Tsuboi, and Antoine Hachard and Stéphane Ouaiche.

Latest Results

Saturday 19th November: Men’s Doubles – Main Draw