by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager
Notably in the Boys’ Doubles event, Romania’s Cristian Pletea and Rares Sipos, the top seeds, experienced a fourth round defeat at the hands of China’s Xu Yingbin and Yu Heyi, the no.10 seeds (11-3, 11-8, 11-6); in the same round Japan’s Aoto Asazu and Takeru Kashiwa, the no.8 seeds, lost to Slovakia’s Stefan Peko and Jakub Zelinka, the no.13 seeds (11-2, 4-11, 12-10, 10-12, 11-9).
At the quarter-final stage Xu Yingbin and Yu Heyi meet the French pairing of Lilian Bardet and Bastian Rembert, the no.6 seeds, in the same half of the draw India’s Jeet Chandra and Snehit Suravajjula, the no.7 seeds, oppose the combination of Austria’s Maciej Kolodziejczyk and Ioannis Sgouropoulos of Greece.
Meanwhile, in the lower half of the draw Stefan Peko and Jakub Zelinka oppose the formation of Egypt’s Youssef Abdel-Aziz and Italy’s Carlo Rossi, the no.3 seeds; Frenchmen Leo de Nodrest and Jules Rolland, the no.5 seeds, confront India’s Manush Utpalbhai Shah and Manuv Vikash Thakkar, the no.2 seeds.
Similarly in the Junior Girls’ Doubles event, there were defeats for highly seeded pairs; notably when facing Chinese adversaries.
The combination of Romania’s Andreea Dragoman and Russia’s Mariia Tailakova, the no.4 seeds, experienced a quarter-final defeat when facing Shi Xunyao and Sun Yizhen, the no.11 seeds (11-9, 11-9, 11-8). Somewhat similarly, in round two, the partnership formed by Lucie Gauthier of France and Russia’s Anastasia Kolish, the no.3 seeds, had suffered at the hands of Chen Yi and Huang Fanzhen (11-9, 11-8, 13-11) a pair with no world ranking.
Chen Yi and Huang Fanzhen duly accounted for the duo comprising Spain’s Ana Garcia and Romania’s Tania Plaian, the no.8 seeds (11-8, 11-9, 11-7) to book their place in the penultimate round where they oppose the Belarus duo of Maharyta Baltushite and Nadezhda Bogdanova, the no.2 seeds.
In the opposite half of the draw Shi Xunyao and Sun Yizhen face Serbia’s Tijana Jokic and Sabina Surjan, the top seeds.
Play in both the Junior Boys’ Doubles and Junior Girls’ Doubles events concludes on Thursday 15th February.
