by Ian Marshall, Editor
The defeat experienced by Laurens Devos and Olav Kosolosky was no great upset; qualifying for the main draw was a worthy achievement in itself. They lost to the far more experienced Indian partnership of Amalraj Anthony and Sanil Shetty, the no.3 seeds; notably they extracted the opening game and gave their more senior adversaries more than food for thought (10-12, 15-13, 11-9, 11-6).
Rather differently, the reverse suffered by Martin Allegro and Florent Lambiet was a disappointment. The no.2 seeds, they lost to a most creditable pairing in the guise of the Korea Republic’s An Jaehyun and Cho Seungmin; the disappointment being that they held a two games to nil lead (9-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-7).
Saving the day, colleagues Robin Devos and Cédric Nuytinck justified their exalted billing. They emerged successful but they were tested; they needed the full five games to beat the Swedish partnership of Simon Ardvisson and Elias Ranefur (11-9, 11-5, 10-12, 11-9).
Disappointment for Sweden but as with Belgium there was success; Simon Berglund and Viktor Brodd upset the odds. Required to qualify, they accounted for the Belarus combination of Aliaksandr Khanin and Pavel Platonov, the no.8 seeds; they prevailed in a full distance five games contest (11-4, 11-13, 12-10, 9-11, 11-7).
Mixed fortunes for European pairs, for Latin Americans there was notable success. Brazil’s Vitor Ishiy and Eric Jouti, the no.6 seeds, beat South America colleagues, Chile’s Alfonso Olave and Felipe Olivares (8-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-5) but it was the performance of Paraguay’s Marcelo Aguirre in partnership with Mexico’s Marcos Madrid that attracted the attention. Safely through the preliminary rounds, they beat the partnership formed by Hungary’s Nandor Ecseki and Romania’s Rares Sipos, the no.5 seeds (11-8, 11-7, 11-6).
Farewell for Nandor Ecseki and Rares Sipos, it was the same for Egypt’s Ahmed Ali Saleh and Mohamed El-Beiali, the no.4 seeds; they withdrew from proceedings affording Japan’s Kakeru Sone and Yuta Tanaka, a walk-over.
A place in the quarter-finals for Japan; Germany also asvanced. Benedikt Duda and Qiu Dang, the no.7 seeds, ended the hopes of Hong Kong’s Ng Pak Nam and Su Zhi (11-7, 11-9, 11-6).
