by Simon Daish

Yuto Kizukuri and Masaki Takami surprised spectators in Minsk, after the sixth seeded pairing reached the Men’s Doubles final against the odds.

The no.3 seeds Daniel Gorak and Wang Zengyi also made a somewhat shock appearance in the Men’s Doubles final, following their semi-final upset against the top seeds Mikhail Paikov and Grigory Vlasov.

Surprising outcomes maybe, but both the Japanese partnership of Yuto Kizukuri and Masaki Takami and Poland’s Daniel Gorak and Wang Zengyi proved worthy of their positions in the final and as a result a closely fought out finale was anticipated.

Three games were played out in the final as Gorak and Wang were crowned Men’s Doubles champions in straight games, but very little separated the winners from the runners up in the tie as fans were treated to a highly enjoyable display of table tennis (11-7, 11-7, 11-9).

“We’re so happy with our victory, that’s our first title. Each game was played equally, but our opponents made too many simple mistakes. Also, we picked all the right tactics in different situations, which gave positive results for us”, said the Men’s Doubles champions Wang Zengyi and Daniel Gorak.

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