by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

Defeat; this time it was success, victory in five games in opposition to Frenchman, Romain Lorentz.

However, the score-line does not reflect the fact that in the fifth game, he looked down and out. He trailed 6-10; relaxed but with no great fortune or playing in a devil-may-care manner, he won the next six points to secure the victory.

Notably there was no hint of panic from the Slovenian, he served from the backhand from the centre of the table, very much in the style of Hungary’s Tibor Klampar or Croatia’s Zoran Primorac; crucially he varied the serve, one with backspin, one with no spin.

“I used my backhand serve and just kept trying; I don’t like playing in the morning! Against Lam Siu Hang, he played well but I wasn’t really prepared. It was a case of just start again. In the fifth game against Romain I had it in my head that the match score was three-two!” Darko Jorgic

Defeat for France on table no.1, on table no.2; it was the same outcome; Quentin Robinot experienced defeat against Croatia’s Tomislav Pucar, a player in form. The previous evening he had beaten the very impressive Korean, Park Gangyeon (8-11, 11-9, 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 11-8).

“I felt confident after the win last night; the way Quentin plays suits me. I play from both wings, from both backhand and forehand, Quentin likes to play forehand, he likes to step around his backhand. You have to be positive against him but I felt I could control the play. There was no great service or receive advantage for either of us. Maybe it helped that I could flick his service; that enabled me to main gain an advantage.” Tomislav Pucar

In the second preliminary round, the round that determines a place in the main draw, Tomislav Pucar meets Chinese Taipei’s Chen Chien-An, Darko Jorgic confronts China’s Liang Jinkun.