World number 156 Lubomir PISTEJ (SVK) caused the biggest upset of the 2017 World Championships, knocking out 11th seed JEOUNG Youngsik (KOR) 4-1 (12-10, 11-6, 12-10, 7-11, 11-5) in the Men’s Singles round of 128.
“I surprised him, not myself. All players from the top hundred can play at a high enough level to beat anyone,” shared PISTEJ. “I was comfortable with his serve and really his play wasn’t too difficult for me. He didn’t know what to expect. I like to play people who don’t know me, as I’m a little unorthodox.”
Just on the neighboring table, 2016 European Championships Men’s Doubles bronze medalist Kristian KARLSSON suffered the same fate as JEOUNG, losing 1-4 (9-11, 7-11, 10-12, 11-9, 9-11) to Chinese Taipei’s LIAO Cheng-Ting, who is currently ranked at 100 in the world.
Austria’s Daniel HABESOHN added on to the casualty list to conclude first round of the Men’s Singles event, ending 15th seed Kenta MATSUDAIRA’s run 4-3 (7-11, 11-3, 11-6, 12-10, 13-11, 7-11, 11-8) for the title.
World number seven CHENG I-Ching (TPE) suffered in the hands of an unranked MU Zi (CHN) in the Women’s Singles round of 64, losing 2-4 (5-11, 5-11, 13-11, 7-11, 12-10, 7-11) to exit the Women’s Singles event.
51st seed in the World Championships, USA’s Lily ZHANG avenged her loss to Sabine WINTER (GER) during their last encounter at the Seamaster 2016 Women’s World Cup in Philadelphia, defeating the 25th seeded German star in a seven-games thriller (7-11, 4-11, 11-7, 12-10, 7-11, 11-6, 11-6).
Host country Germany lost another of their top contender for the Women’s crown, with world number 20 Petrissa SOLJA losing 1-4 (11-4,9-11,7-11,3-11,7-11) to Hungary’s Szandra PERGERL in the disappointment of the German crowd.
Fans can expect more thrilling table tennis action tomorrow with several key matches on show such as:
- Clash between two-time European Champion Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and Paul DRINKHALL (ENG) who led the English team to a Bronze at the World Team Championships last year.
- Local favorite MA Long /Timo BOLL VS Chinese duo FAN Zhendong/XU Xin faceoff
- Partnership between the top two ranked players in the world, DING Ning/LIU Shiwen VS Japanese Champions duo Miu HIRANO/Kasumi ISHIKAWA
More exciting action continues tomorrow from 10:00 local time (GMT+2), with EIGHT tables of live streaming on ITTF online streaming platform itTV: tv.ITTF.com
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