by Simon Daish
One notable departure in the second preliminary qualification round for the Men’s Singles tournament came from Panagiotis Gionis with the Greek defender suffering an early exit at the hands of Liu Dingshuo (11-7, 11-9, 2-11, 7-11, 11-4, 4-11, 10-12).
Determination proved enough to send China’s Liu Dingshuo through to the main draw and it was a similar outcome for fellow compatriot Xu Chenhao, who also recovered from a tight spot in his match against the Ukraine’s Yevhen Pryshchepa (8-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-13, 6-11, 11-8, 11-2) while Wang Chuqin and Xue Fei also qualified for the main draw.
Sweden’s Truls Moregard caused one of the biggest upsets of the day with the 15-year-old star coming out on top in a thrilling six games encounter with Sharath Kamal Achanta of India (11-8, 9-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-8, 13-11).
Kirill Gerassimenko also impressed at the final stage of qualifying as the Kazakh competitor held his nerve to see off Polish opponent Jakub Dyjas (4-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-5, 9-11, 2-11, 11-5) while Frenchman Quentin Robinot earned back-to-back victories over ITTF World Tour Men’s Singles gold medalists Cazuo Matsumoto and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran to book his spot in the Round of 32.
There were plenty of surprising eliminations in the closing stages of the Women’s Singles qualification event, including an early exit for Austria’s Liu Jia.
Giving the home crowd something to cheer about earlier in the day with a fine display against Ukrainian contestant Tetyana Bilenko (11-6, 11-5, 8-11, 11-5, 11-9), Hungary’s Dora Madarasz went on to stun Liu Jia in the final round of qualifying with a tremendous six games win (10-12, 11-6, 10-12, 12-14, 11-8, 9-11).
Petrissa Solja won’t be appearing in the Women’s Singles main draw after the German player lost out to Ganna Gaponova of the Ukraine (11-3, 5-11, 11-7, 6-11, 2-11, 11-13) and it was Bernadette Szocs who prevailed in the battle of the Romanians, defeating international teammate Daniela Monteiro Dodean (11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 11-6, 12-10) to extend her campaign in Budapest.
There was a major qualification shock in the Men’s Doubles competition with 2013 World champions Chen Chien-An and Chuang Chih-Yuan of Chinese Taipei falling to Denmark’s Anders Lind and Hungary’s Bence Majoros (10-12, 11-9, 10-12, 12-10, 11-9) and two competitions drew to conclusions as Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-Ju and China’s Chen Ke secured the Under 21 Men’s Singles and Under 21 Women’s Singles titles.
