by Ian Marshall, ITT Publications Manager
Quadri Aruna was beaten by Croatia’s Andrej Gacina (11-5, 11-7, 11-3, 9-11, 8-11, 11-7); Bastien Steger suffered by the narrowest of margins at the hands of Hong Kong’s Ho Kwan Kit (10-12, 4-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4, 12-10); Kim Donghyun lost to Japan’s Masaki Yoshida (11-9, 7-11, 11-7, 12-10, 6-11, 11-9).
Casualties of note, they were not alone. Portugal’s Tiago Apolonia winner on the ITTF World Tour in 2010 in Austria, experienced defeat at the hands of Chinese Taipei’s Liao Cheng-Ting in a hard fought seven games encounter decided by the very narrowest of margins (11-9, 12-14, 7-11, 13-11, 12-10, 9-11, 12-10).
Similarly, Jiang Tianyi, like Ho Kwan Kit from Hong Kong, ITTF World Tour winner in Brazil in 2008 and 2015 in Hungary, departed at the hands of Denmark’s very impressive Jonathan Groth (11-7, 13-11, 11-8, 11-9).
Meanwhile for the host nation, despite the defeat of Bastien Steger, there was notable success. Ruwen Filus beat Russia’s Alexey Liventsov (8-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-6, 11-9), Patrick Franziska accounted for Korea’s Jang Woojin (11-2, 11-7, 9-11, 4-11, 11-7, 13-11).
Similarly for Korea, disappointments for Kim Donghyun and Jang Woojin but there were worthy successes
An Jaehyun was centre stage; he accounted for Frenchman, Emmanuel Lebesson, the reigning European champion, he prevailed in six games (11-8, 11-6, 11-6, 8-11, 10-12, 11-6). Likewise, in an equally impressive manner, Jeoung Youngsik once again found the style of Chinese Chen Chien-An to his liking. In the qualification tournament at the recent Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open he had prevailed in five games (11-6, 11-6, 15-17, 11-8, 11-7) but had departed proceedings finishing in third place in the group on games ratio. In Bremen he won in four straight games and advanced to the main draw.
Likewise, there was success for colleague Jeong Sangeun; he ended the hopes of Kazakhstan’s Kirill Gerassimenko (8-11, 11-9, 11-7, 6-11, 7-11, 11-3. 11-8).
Overall for Korea and Germany perhaps not ideal but more pluses than minuses.
