by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager

Ruwen Filus and Ricardo Walther, the no.6 seeds, suffered at the hands of Japan’s Jun Mizutani and Yuya Oshima, a pair that had been required to compete in the qualification tournament, they were beaten in four games (11-5, 9-11, 11-4, 11-5); for Patrick Franziska and Jonathan Groth it was defeat at the hands of seeded opponents.

The no.3 seeds, they were beaten by Korea’s Jeoung Youngsik and Lee Sangsu, the no.7 seeds; they experience defeat in a high quality encounter losing by the very narrowest of margins in the decisive fifth game (11-2, 11-8, 11-13, 8-11, 11-9).

“I think in the second game they felt a little previous, I think they were a little nervous. We have played them before. I think we have now won three times against them but we have also lost. They are very good with first attack but maybe we were better in the rally and I think our blocking our control was quite good today.” Lee Sangsu

Disappointment for Germany, conversely it was success for China, Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin beat Austria’s Robert Gardos and Daniel Habersohn (11-1, 9-11, 11-6, 11-5), Fang Bo and Li Guayuan, like the Austrians qualifiers, ended the dreams of India’s Sharath Kamal Achanta and Sathiyan Gnanasekaren, they won in four games (8-10, 12’10,11-1, 12-10).

At the semi-final stage Fang Bo and Lin Gaoyuan meet Jun Mizutani and Yuya Oshima, Jeoung Youngsik and Lee Sangsu oppose Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin.

The matches are scheduled for 7.40pm (local time) on Friday 9th March.