by Simon Daish
Receiving a bye in the first round of Men’s Singles preliminary action, Jeoung Youngsik required just the one win to earn a spot in the main draw.
However, there will be no Round of 32 appearance from the Korean athlete after Jeoung Youngsik suffered a shock six games defeat at the hands of the Czech Republic’s Pavel Sirucek (11-9, 5-11, 13-11, 5-11, 11-7, 8-11, 8-11).
There will also be an absence from world no.51 João Monteiro in the main event with the Portuguese representative losing out to Swedish opponent Jens Lundqvist, who occupies position no.112 (11-6, 11-3, 7-11, 5-11, 7-11, 12-10, 9-11), while Denmark’s Zhai Yujia accounted for Paul Drinkhall across seven games (5-11, 6-11, 14-12, 11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 11-4).
Upsets were also apparent in the Women’s Singles preliminary qualification round as Korea Republic’s Suh Hyowon and Chinese Taipei’s Chen Szu-Yu experienced shock defeats to Chinese opposition.
Occupying 20th and 21st positions respectively in the world ranking table Suh Hyowon and Chen Szu-Yu were hoping to compete alongside the 16 seeded players in the Women’s Singles tournament but neither competitor has achieved that goal following negative outcomes against world no.62 Zhang Qiang (8-11, 10-12, 7-11, 10-12) and the currently unranked Li Jiayi (7-11, 5-11, 10-12, 11-6, 9-11).
Portugal’s Fu Yu was the sole player to claim victory over a Chinese contestant in the play-off round, defeating Zhang Rui in the deciding game (12-10, 11-8, 9-11, 7-11, 13-11, 10-12, 11-2) but despite the minor setback China will have 10 representatives competing in the first round of the Women’s Singles category.
Defeat for Zhang Rui but there was a moment of celebration soon after with a four games victory over Wang Yidi in the Under 21 Women’s Singles final (9-11, 11-8, 12-15, 11-5) with the Under 21 Men’s Singles crown going to Park Ganghyeon, who negotiated a close encounter with Lam Siu Hang (11-13, 15-13, 12-10, 12-10).
The evening session of play saw Quadri Aruna and Diogo Carvalho narrowly progress through to the main draw of the Men’s Doubles competition as the Nigerian and Portuguese combination held off a strong challenge from Czech opponents Pavel Sirucek and Tomas Tregler (12-10, 11-7, 6-11, 10-12, 11-4) while the Swedish duo of Par Gerell and Jon Persson also surpassed the qualification event.
Both Egypt’s Dina Meshref and Italy’s Deborah Vivarelli entered the Women’s Singles qualification tournament looking for partners and now the two have will compete as a pairing in the Round of 16 following a fine display against Belarusian opponents Nadezhda Bogdanova and Daria Trigolos (11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 11-2).
