by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager
Similarly, the Chinese combination of Xu Yingbin, Cao Yantao and Yuan Licen, the no.5 seeds, all players who had made their presence felt the previous day in the individual events, secured pole positions in style. They recorded three-nil wins on each visit to the table.
However, lower down the list, there were problems for Germany, the no.7 seeds who selected from Cédric Meissner, Meng Fanbo, Daniel Rinderer and Kay Stumper.
In their opening fixture they experienced a three-one defeat in a competition where only first place in the group secured a passport to the main draw. They were beaten by the Swedish combination of David Andersson, Bruno Nettrap and Melker Nilsson; the one win for the Germans emanating in the opening match of the fixture when Cédric Meissner accounted for Melker Nilsson (11-9, 11-9, 11-5).
An initial success for the Swedes but in their second fixture of the day they experienced a three-nil defeat at the hands of Argentina’s Martin Bentancor, Santiago Lorenzo and Alexis Orencel. The defeat opened the door for the Germans; in their concluding contest, with Kay Stumper replacing Daniel Rinderer, a three-nil success was posted against Argentina.
Thus on match ratio, it was first place for Germany (4:3) followed by Argentina (3:3) and Sweden (3:4).
Play in the Junior Boys’ Team event concludes on Saturday 26th May.
