by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
Impressively, the top seeded combination formed by Russia’s Artur Abusev and Denis Ivonin, who teamed with Sweden’s Jens Holmqvist, finished in first place in their group; Egypt ‘C’ fielding the trio of Mazen Farouk, Gawad El-Herazy and Omar El-Safty secured runners up spot and thus progressed to the knock-out phase.
Teams finishing in first and second positions in each group progressed to the main draw.
The player to impress for the Egyptians was Omar El-Safty, against the top seeds, in the third match of the fixture he accounted for Jens Holmqvist (11-7, 11-6, 6-11, 12-10).
Similarly for Romania’s Rares Sipos, Mihai Zamfir and Florin Spelbus, the second seeds, it was a smooth journey to top spot; in fact not one individual match was surrendered during the day. Second place finished in the hands of the Egypt ‘B’ Team combination of Ammar Attia, Ziad Wael and Abdelrahaman Dendan.
Few difficulties for the top two seeds; it was the very much same for the Egypt ‘A’ trio of Karim Elhakem, Youssef Abdel-Aziz and Ahmed Elboramy, the third seeds. They secured top spot in their group. The outfit formed by Jordan’s Khaled Khader, who joined forces with the host nation’s Hasan Alhourani and Amr Mahfouz, ended matters in second place.
Egypt in evidence in the Junior Boys’ Team event, it was very much the same in the first stage of the Cadet Boys’ Team competition, where there were four groups in the initial phase; the top two in each group advancing to the quarter-finals.
Youssef Ehab and Ahmed El-Mahdy on duty for Egypt ‘A’ reserved first place in their group, as did the Egypt ‘C’ pairing of Moamen Ashraf and Ziad El-Shawa. Meanwhile, Yehia Saad and Karim Zarad, representing Egypt ‘D’, in addition to the Egypt ‘E’ pairing of Omar Allam and Marwan Gamal finished in runners up spot in their respective groups.
Also, joining forces with Tunisia’s Youssef Ben Attia, it was first position for Mohamed Azzam; whilst for Youssef Abdelwahab in harness with Nigeria’s Taiwo Mati the outcome was second place.
Last eight places for Egypt; it was the same for the partnership comprising Algeria’s Abdelbasset Chaichi and Congo Brazzaville’s Regis Kiassi, as was the situation for the Saudi Arabia ‘A’ Team duo of Fares Humaidi and Saud Almutari. Impressively Abdelbasset Chaichi and Regis Kiassi finished in first place in their group, for Fares Humaidi and Saud Almutari, it was second position.
Both the Junior Boys’ Team and Cadet Boys’ Team events conclude on Thursday 12th October.
