by Ian Marshall, Editor
After a slow start, Nicolas Degros asserted his authority on proceedings; he recovered from an opening game deficit to beat Estonia’s Maksim Vukka in four games (7-11, 11-8, 11-1, 11-1); alas for colleague, David Comeliau it was to be agonizing defeat. He suffered against Frenchman, Dorian Zheng by the very narrowest of margins, after having held a two games to nil lead (8-11, 4-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-9).
Honours even, one win one loss; for China it was double that number but with the ratio remaining the same.
Zhou Yu beat India’s Anirban Ghosh (12-10, 11-6, 11-3), Wang Sibo accounted for Slovakia’s Daniel Orak (11-8, 12-10, 11-8). Conversely, Sun Boya lost to Germany’s Meng Fanbo (11-5, 11-6, 11-9), Yue Hao experienced defeat at the hands of Japan’s Takeru Kashiwa (11-7, 6-11, 11-6, 11-9).
Outcomes without the need for a deciding fifth game but, as with the contest involving Daniel Comeliau and Dorian Zheng, the engagement between Switzerland’s Yoon Rebetez and Finland’s Alex Naumi went to the wire. Like Dorian Zheng, Yoon Rebetez recovered from a two games to nil deficit and, in addition the very precipice of defeat in the third game, to eventually succeed (6-11, 8-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-6).
Preliminary round one completed, preliminary round two will be completed on Wednesday 24th October; the main draw will commence the following day and will be played to a conclusion on Friday 26th October, the concluding day of action in De Haan.
