by Simon Daish
Age isn’t a barrier
In some sports athletes find that aging can take its toll on performance levels but not in table tennis as proven by Aleksandar Karakasevic, 43, and Michael Maze, 37, who met in a fantastic men’s singles group stage duel on Day Two.
The Serbian and Danish stars played out a thrilling seven game encounter, featuring spectacular rallies and plenty of drama. Fighting back from 1-3 down Karakasevic emerged victorious by a 4-3 score-line (6-11, 7-11, 16-14, 8-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-2) – clearly both players still have what it takes to compete at the top of the game.
The inspirational journey of Cecilio Correa and Jan Medina
Against the backdrop of deeply troubling scenes and financial turmoil in their home country of Venezuela, Cecilio Correa and Jan Medina defied all the odds to reach the main draw before eventually exiting to Brazil’s Eric Jouti and Gustavo Tsuboi.
Despite they’re departure the Venezuelan duo should be highly commended for their efforts: meeting all of their own costs to compete with no financial assistance available from their country’s sport ministry, Correa and Medina’s journey is simply one of inspiration. Be sure to check out the full story here.
Top seeds exiting early not necessarily a surprise
It may sound a contradictory statement, but it isn’t always the case that when the top seeded competitors suffer an early exit that the outcome is one of major surprise.
In the second round of mixed doubles action it could be argued that we witnessed such an example: seeded first for the competition, but in reality Wong Chun Ting and Doo Hoi Kem were always set for an uphill challenge and ultimately the Hong Kong pair fell to the formidable Chinese partnership of Fan Zhendong and Ding Ning in straight games (11-7, 11-9, 18-16, 11-5).
England has new stars to cheer
Gaining quite a reputation as a fine athlete in the younger age categories but on Day Two Tom Jarvis, 19, took a major step in his senior career. The underdog in his preliminary round meeting with India’s Amalraj Anthony but against expectations it was Jarvis who secured the victory (11-7, 11-9, 9-11, 6-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-3) and thus his place in the men’s singles main draw.
England also enjoyed a fine day in the women’s singles event as Tin-Tin Ho, 20, and Maria Tsaptsinos, 21, topped their respective groups to reach the Round of 128.
The host cities for 2021 and 2022 World Championships are…
Houston and Chengdu have been unveiled as the host cities for the 2021 and 2022 editions of the World Table Tennis Championships following a historic vote at the ITTF’s Annual General Meeting.
With the action heading to Houston, 2021 will see the World Championships take place on American soil for the first time and will also take the prestigious event outside of the European and Asian continents for the first time in 82 years! Meanwhile in 2022 China will once again welcome the world’s finest players, this time to Chengdu.
