by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager
Emmanuel Lebesson beat Patryk Zatowka (12-10, 11-7, 11-8), before Simon Gauzy accounted for Marek Badowski (11-5, 11-4, 11-7) and Quentin Robinot defeated Tomasz Kotowski (11-7, 11-9, 12-10) to end matters.
However, at the same time with Tomislav Pucar, Andrej Gacina and Frane Kojic on duty, Croatia, the no.20 seeds, recorded a shock three-one win against hitherto unbeaten Korea Republic. Tomislav Pucar lost to Lee Sangsu (11-9, 11-7, 12-10) but that was to be the only reverse for the European country. Andrej Gacina accounted for both Lim Jonghoon (11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 11-8) and Lee Sangsu (8-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-9), whilst sandwiched in between Frane Koji defeated Kim Donghyun (8-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7)
Also, Austria, the no.11 seeds, represented by Stefan Fegerl, Robert Gardos and Daniel Habesohn ended the day on a high note. They performed a quite remarkable recovery to beat the India the no.13 seeds, by the three matches to two.
In the opening contest Stefan Fegerl lost to Sharath Kamal Achanta (11-7, 18-17, 11-8) to be followed by Robert Gardos who suffered at the hands of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (11-4, 11-6, 7-11, 15-13). It was at that stage the recovery began. Daniel Habesohn beat Harmeet Desai (11-6, 8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-6), before Robert Gardos defeated Sharath Kamal Achanta (11-2, 11-8, 11-9) and Stefan Fegerl completed the fightback by defeating Sathiyan Gnanasekaran 811-13, 11-9, 11-7, 11-9).
The eventual outcome was that Korea Republic finished clear of the field with nine points ahead of Austria, Croatia and France who shared second place, each having eight points.
Three teams level, fixtures between the teams in question determines the order. Earlier in the week, France had beaten Croatia by three matches to nil but by the same margin had lost to Austria. Moreover, Croatia had recorded a three-nil win against Austria.
Thus on match ratio all three were level (3:3); games ratio was required to determine the outcome; Austria (13:10) finished ahead of Croatia (14:13) with France (10:14) next on the list and resigned to compete for the lower places.
Final Positions: 1. Korea Republic 9pts 2. Austria 8pts (13:10) 3. Croatia 8pts (14:13), 4. France 8pts (10:14), 5. India 7pts 6. Poland 5pts.
