by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

Bastian Steger, the top seed, beat compatriot Kilian Ort (12-10, 3-11, 11-2, 11-6, 11-7); Sweden’s Jon Persson, the no.22 seed, overcame the Tomas Tregler (11-7, 16-14, 11-5, 11-7).

“The four-nil result sounds much easier as it actually was. I tried to make some tactical changes in some key moments and it worked all right. I am happy with my performance so far.” Bastian Steger

Success for Bastian Steger was followed by success for Jon Persson, the win being as status confirmed; presently on the Men’s World Rankings, Tomas Tregler is at no.151, Jon Persson at no.106.

Furthermore, the outcome was also according to past meetings; they had met on two previous occasions on the international scene, Jon Persson had prevailed on both occasions. He emerged successful in the Under 21 Men’s Singles event at the Liebherr 2007 German Open and four years later, also on the ITTF World Tour, in the Men’s Singles qualification stage in Austria.

“I felt I was in a good shape during the entire week and reaching the final was more than I expected. In the semi-final, I had a good start but I think the key moment of the match was being able to win the second game after he had several game points.”

The final will be played later today and will conclude play in Otocec.