by Simon Daish
Belgium’s Robin Devos and Cedric Nuytinck emerged victorious in five games in their match against Poland’s Jakub Dyjas and Portugal’s João Geraldo in the previous round of the Men’s Doubles event, however, overcoming China’s Fang Bo and Zhou Yu in the quarter-finals proved to be one step too far for the no.1 seeds.
Nothing could separate the Belgian and Chinese partnerships by the conclusion of the opening four games, and the match looked set for an exciting finale with both teams having displayed wonderful Table Tennis throughout the tie. However, game five ended up rather comfortably in the hands of Fang Bo and Zhou Yu giving the Chinese duo the win and knocking the no.1 seeds out of the event (12-10, 9-11, 12-10, 8-11, 11-5).
“It was a hard match it took four games to adapt and make adjustments to our tactics and get it right. In the last game we made more changes and reacted a lot better which made a big difference”, Fang Bo.
Awaiting Fang Bo and Zhou Yu in the semi-finals is the German partnership of Ruwen Filus and Ricardo Walther, following their triumph over India’s Sharath Kamal Achanta and Senil Shetty (11-9, 11-9, 8-11, 15-13) as the no.5 seeds from China prepare to take on the German pairing seeded one spot below them for a chance to reach the final.
The lower half of the draw has set up an intriguing semi-finals encounter, with Brazil’s Hugo Calderano and Gustavo Tsuboi and the Hungarian pairing of Nandor Ecseki and Adam Szudi both negotiating their matches in the last eight.
Hugo Calderano and Gustavo Tsuboi required the full five game distance before they eventually emerged victorious over Tomas Konecny and Tomas Polansky of the Czech Republic (12-10, 9-11, 11-9, 11-13, 11-8), while the no.8 seeds Nandor Ecseki and Adam Szudi played out of their skins as they thundered past the third seeds representing Chinese Taipei Chen Chien-An and Chuang Chih-Yuan (11-7, 11-4, 11-8) to progress into the penultimate round.
“We cannot believe it we beat the World champions of 2013 with the performance of our lives. We could not do anything any better. Whatever was discussed with our coach Zoltan Batorfi we did it and beyond we kept the Hungarian hopes alive and we did it here in Hungary”, was the reaction of the victorious Hungarian duo.
