by Simon Daish
So often the hero for Borussia Düsseldorf and Timo Boll stood up to the task again, beating Pavel Sirucek (9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-5) and Panagiotis Gionis (11-5, 11-8, 11-9) while Kristian Karlsson also chipped in for the hosts with a comfortable win against Marek Bodowski (11-7, 11-5, 11-7). Kaii Yoshida accounted for Anton Källberg in what proved to be little more than a moment of consolation for the visitors.
TTSC UMMC awaits the reigning champions in the semi-finals after the Russian club narrowly scraped through thanks to a superior points-ratio [388:376] against another German side in Post SV Mühlhausen.
Andrej Gacina didn’t enjoy the best of success, suffering defeats to Daniel Habesohn and Lubomir Jacarik with Alexander Shibaev also losing out in his battle against Ovidiu Ionescu. However, much to the delight of the home crowd Fang Bo produced the goods with victories over Lubomir Jancarik (11-9, 11-4, 15-13) and Daniel Habesohn (9-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-9, 11-4) to help UMMC into the next round despite a 2-3 home defeat.
Establishing a commanding 3-0 lead in the opening encounter France’s Angers Vaillante TT once again proved simply too strong for SPG Walter Wels, claiming another 3-0 victory over the Austrian side.
Moving in front courtesy of Andrea Landrieu’s straight games win against Adam Szudi (13-11, 11-9, 11-6), João Geraldo then beat Deni Kozul (11-4, 11-5, 11-5) before Jon Persson completed the job with a perfect display in his meeting with Christian Friedrich (11-7, 11-7, 11-3).
Another team that went into the second round of quarter-final fixtures with a 3-0 lead was four-time champions TTC Fakel Gazprom, who secured their place in the last four at the expense of two-time winners AS Pontoise-Cergy.
Despite Mattias Falck’s full distance victory over Yan An (7-11, 12-10, 14-12, 9-11, 11-9) the visitors’ chances were soon dashed as Dimitrij Ovtcharov put on a masterclass against Can Akkuzu (11-8, 11-4, 11-4) to guarantee the home side’s place in the last four. Vladimir Samsonov and Can Akkuzu inflicted defeats on Tristan Flore and Marcos Freitas respectively and Dimitrij Ovtcharov saw off Mattias Falck in the remaining fixtures.