by Simon Daish
No one’s too big to fall early
One of the most important aspects in sport, especially in table tennis, is to always expect the unexpected. However, on Day Three we witnessed a couple of early departures that we totally didn’t see coming.
Few would have predicted that Wong Chun Ting’s journey would end in round one of the men’s singles competition, but that’s exactly what transpired as the no.14 seed suffered a shock 4-0 defeat at the hands of Korean qualifier An Jaehyun (11-3, 11-5, 11-8, 11-9). Not long after it was the turn of no.26 seed Chen Chien-An to fall with Tomas Polansky the responsible party.
Prior successes can backfire?
It may sound like a ridiculous question to ask but can a successful past outing end up backfiring on you?
Silver medallists in 2017 and seeded first for this year’s event but Japan’s Masataka Morizono and Yuya Oshima were left stunned in round two of the men’s doubles draw, knocked out of the running by Tristan Flore and Emmanuel Lebesson (11-8, 7-11, 11-7, 13-15, 11-6, 6-11, 11-9) – it was as if the French pair were extra motivated by the sheer scale of the upset on offer.
Host nation not going down without a fight
While Georgina Pota’s campaign concluded earlier than expected there is one player still flying the flag for Hungary in the form of Dora Madarasz. Fighting back from 1-3 behind Madarasz pulled off a fine recovery effort, beating no.22 seed Li Jie 4-3 (11-3, 8-11, 8-11, 9-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-4) to book her spot in round three.
Madarasz also enjoyed a comeback victory in the women’s doubles draw as she and partner Szandra Pergel found their way into the last 16 at Pauline Chasselin and Laura Gasnier’s expense (14-12, 7-11, 10-12, 8-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-7). Nandor Ecseki and Adam Szudi will represent the hosts at the same stage in the men’s singles event.
Surpassing hurdles is what Adriana Diaz does best
On the third day of play in Budapest new territory was marked for Puerto Rico as Adriana Diaz became the nation’s first player and the first from Latin America to reach round three of the women’s singles event in World Championships history!
Starting the day with a convincing display against Italy’s Debora Vivarelli (11-4, 11-6, 11-8, 11-8), Diaz went on to account for India’s Sutirtha Mukherjee across six games (4-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-5, 11-3, 11-9), laying down a new marker for Puerto Rican table tennis.
Parkinson World Championships given green light
“Everything is better than it used to be”: these words were delivered by the illustrious musician Nenad Bach, who three years ago turned to table tennis after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
In Budapest Nenad Bach himself was present at a historic contract signing, green-lighting the first-ever Parkinson World Championships which will be held at the Westchester Club in New York from 11-13 October. Read the full story below:
