by Simon Daish
Fighting Spirit
Andrei Baibuldin secured top spot in his Men’s Singles qualifying group and was rewarded with a place in the preliminary round where he faced a tough encounter with young USA star Kanak Jha.
The start of the tie favoured Kanak Jha with the player from the United States managing to find some early momentum. However, Andrei Baibuldin refused to give in and through sheer determination came out of the seven games fixture with a win to his name (4-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-5, 6-11, 11-6).
Ukrainian competitor Oleksandr Didukh required a fantastic comeback effort to see off Austrian representative Simon Pfeffer (9-11, 9-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-7), and there was some good news for the home crowd to celebrate after Patryk Zatowka registered a four games to three triumph over Pavel Platonov of Belarus (11-5, 10-12, 11-9, 7-11, 11-7, 5-11, 13-11) to book his place in the main draw.
Swedish Surprise
There was plenty more drama in the second day of Women’s Singles group stage action, as Filippa Bergand moved through to the Round of 64 with a superb display in her final qualification match.
Facing Mateja Jeger for first position in the group, Swedish player Filippa Bergand recovered from a three games to one deficit to topple the Croatian in the deciding game (9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-6, 6-11, 8-11, 11-13).
The Czech Republic’s Karin Adamkova sealed her place in the Round of 64 with a decent performance in her final Group 26 encounter against Belgium’s Nathalie Marchetti (7-11, 11-4, 11-6, 5-11, 11-8, 11-8) while Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chia-Hsuan held too much for English opponent Hannah Hicks (11-7, 11-2, 11-1, 11-9) in Group 8.
Doubles Qualification Concludes
Saki Shibata and Maki Shiomi have qualified for the Women’s Doubles main draw, after the Japanese partnership came out on top against Marharyta Baltushite and Daria Trigolos of Belarus (11-6, 11-3, 11-6) in their final qualifying fixture.
Over in the Men’s Doubles competition the Swedish combination of Simon Arvidsson and Elias Ranefur inflicted defeat upon the Russian pairing of Sadi Ismailov and Grigory Vlasov (11-7, 13-11, 11-13, 11-7) to progress beyond the qualification tournament.
