By Neha Aggarwal & Ian Marshall

Masataka Morizono and Yuya Oshima, both very much forehand orientated players, the former a left hander, the latter a right hander, complement each to a great extent with their similar styles of play.

Conversely for Ruwen Filus being a defender and Ricardo Walther a top spin player, the two techniques are very different; however, in New Delhi, it has proved a winning method. The formula worked well for many years for Austria’s Robert Gardos, the attacker and Chen Weixing, the defender; it is now proving successful for the German duo.

Undoubtedly, Masataka Morizono and Yuya Oshima started proceedings as the clear favourites for the title; prior to the meeting in the Indian capital city, they had appeared in four ITTF World Tour Men’s Doubles finals and they had won all four!

“We are so delighted to win this tournament, although we feel that we could have played a better game overall. We enjoyed a lot of Indian curry here and have wonderful memories of India Open now.”- Masataka Morizono and Yuya Oshima

In 2014 they had won in the Czech Republic, in 2015 in Croatia whilst last year they had emerged successful in both Poland and Germany. Also, they emerged successful at the GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in Lisbon when in the title deciding match they broke the hearts of the host nation by overcoming Tiago Apolonia and João Monteiro.

Overall for Masataka Morizono, in New Delhi it was his fifth ITTF World Tour Men’s Doubles excursion. In 2013 in the Polish capital city when partnering colleague, Kohei Sambe, runners up spot had been his lot; the duo had experienced defeat at the hands of Korea’s Jeoung Youngsik and Lee Sangsu.

Conversely for Ruwen Filus and Ricardo Walther, in New Delhi it was only their second ITTF World Tour Men’s Doubles final; in 2015 in Belarus they had been beaten in the final by Denmark’s Jonathan Groth and Kasper Sternberg.