by Simon Daish

Claiming first position in Group 32 Kilian Ort found himself just one win away from a place in the main draw of the Men’s Singles competition with Alexander Chen providing the opposition in the final qualification round.

While both players were neck-and-neck heading into game three Kilian Ort found another level, picking up the next three games in a row (11-6, 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-5) to guarantee Germany’s presence in the Round of 64.

Just the one German representative will compete in the Men’s Singles event but Austria will have four contestants in action after Simon Pfeffer joined Thomas Grininger in securing qualification: Top spot in Group 13 sealed Thomas Grininger’s place in the main draw but for Simon Pfeffer the journey proved tougher, requiring all seven games in the Preliminary Round to see off the Czech Republic’s David Reitspies (11-7, 4-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9, 11-13, 11-9).

Three Swedish competitors qualified directly from the group stage and two more secured success in the following round with Simon Arvidsson and Simon Berglund producing excellent performances in their respective encounters with Slovenia’s Tilen Cvetko (11-5, 11-3, 11-4, 11-7) and England’s Tom Jarvis (11-4, 11-8, 11-5, 11-5).

However, Oleksandr Didukh’s fine display in the final qualifying round brought one Swedish player’s hopes to a halt as Harald Andersson exited the proceedings with a five games defeat (11-7, 11-9, 11-7, 15-17, 14-12) to the competitor from Ukraine.

Marek Badowski and Yuma Tsuboi were the other contestants who made their way through the Preliminary Round with victories over Guillermo Martinez (10-12, 11-9, 11-9, 12-10, 11-4) and Li Hon Ming (11-4, 11-9, 11-9, 12-10).