by Simon Daish
Stefan Fegerl and Robert Gardos continue to fly the Austrian flag in the Men’s Singles event, and will be aiming to keep the home crowd happy with strong performances in their respective Round of 16 encounters against Chinese opposition.
Seeded 11th in the competition Stefan Fegerl will attempt to oust the no.7 seed Yan An from the tournament while Robert Gardos meets qualifier Lin Gaoyuan, who recently emerged victorious at the 2017 ATTU-ITTF Asian Cup.
Kenta Matsudaira came through a tough opening round fixture against Danish opponent Jonathan Groth across seven games on Day One and the no.6 seed will need to be at his best on the second day of the main draw as he prepares to take on Frenchman Emmanuel Lebesson.
Another exciting encounter sees the third seed Fang Bo meet face-to-face with Hong Kong’s Ng Pak Nam.
Fang Bo didn’t enjoy the smoothest of experiences in his opening round match and his opponent Ng Pak Nam is not to be underestimated following his terrific performance against the no.14 seed Maharu Yoshimura.
Over in the Women’s Singles event there is a fascinating fixture to look forward to as two of China’s young stars do battle.
Sun Yingsha and Chen Xingtong excelled together as a partnership in the opening round of the Women’s Doubles competition but the two players must now face one another in the Women’s Singles draw with the winner claiming a spot in the quarter-finals.
Fresh from her epic opening main draw encounter Luxembourg’s Ni Xialian heads into the Round of 16 with confidence on her side.
Eliminating the no.7 seed Honoka Hashimoto in the previous round, Ni Xialian will attempt to record a similar outcome in her last 16 tie against the 10th seed Hina Hayata.
The identities of the doubles finalists will be known by the conclusion of Day Two with semi-finals action taking place in the early stages of the afternoon, but first there are quarter-finals fixtures to be decided.
Chen Meng and Wang Manyu could be set for a difficult outing in the last eight of the Women’s Doubles category as they face Sun Yingsha and Chen Xingtong in an all-China encounter, while the unseeded pairing of Sweden’s Anton Kallberg and Kristian Karlsson take on the German combination of Ruwen Filus and Ricardo Walther in the Men’s Doubles draw.
