by Simon Daish
Play commences at 11:00 local time with back-to-back semi-finals fixtures at the Country Hall De Liège.
The opening item on the agenda sees current World champion Ma Long fight it out with former World no.1 Timo Boll in what is anticipated to be a fiery contest in the upper half of the draw.
Ma Long is yet to be severely tested in Liège with the top seed dropping just two games from his two previous matches, but Timo Boll will head into the tie feeling on top of the world after achieving an amazing comeback against Lin Gaoyuan at the quarter-finals stage of the tournament.
“Against Ma Long in the semi-final I have nothing to lose. I have to fight just like I did at the last World Championships in Düsseldorf. There is no doubt that he is best player in the world and it is indeed an honour to play against him”, Timo Boll.
The attention then turns to the second semi-final fixture as Dimitrij Ovtcharov meets Simon Gauzy in an all-European contest.
Pushed right down to the wire in his previous match against Alexander Shibaev, Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov will be keen to produce a stronger performance in his semi-finals outing.
Simon Gauzy has been in fine form in Liège and will take confidence from his magnificent quarter-finals victory over Jun Mizutani, but can the Frenchman cause another upset when he goes head-to-head with Dimitrij Ovtcharov?
The semi-finals will be followed by a third place play-off before the tournament concludes with the gold medal match.
