by Ian Marshall, Editor
The quest a place in the main draw and no second chances, in all qualification events it is straight knock-out.
Men’s Singles
…………Vladimir Samsonov opened his account by beating Korea Republic’s An Jaehyun, semi-finalist at the recent Liebherr 2019 World Championships. He won in five games (8-11, 11-8, 11-8,14-12, 11-9).
…………Frenchman Emmanuel Lebesson, the 2016 European champion, started in style. He overcame Chinese Taipei’s Sun Chia-Hung (12-14, 11-9, 12-10, 11-6, 11-3).
…………Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan, the 2002 Grand Finals’ winner, ignited his campaign by defeating Scotland’s Gavin Rumgay (11-3, 11-7, 11-7, 11-3).
…………India’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, crucial tonIndia Commonwealth men’s team gold in 2018, won the match of the day, he saved two match points in the seventh game before overcoming Sweden’s Anton Källberg (8-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-5, 8-11, 8-11, 12-10).
…………Nigeria’s reigning African champion, Quadri Aruna made a most imposing start; he accounted for Portugal’s Diogo Carvalho (11-9, 11-6, 11-2, 11-7).
Women’s Singles
…………China’s Qian Tianyi, the reigning world junior champion started her quest for a main draw place by beating Hong Kong’s Li Ching Wan (11-5, 11-6, 11-6, 11-4).
…………Japan’s 14 year old Miyuu Kihara, only 14 years old and winner earlier in the month at the Seamaster 2019 ITTF Challenge Series Croatia Open once again underlined her talents. She beat Serbia’s Anelia Lupulesku in the opening round (11-5, 11-5, 11-6, 11-5).
…………Brazil’s Gui Lin won the closest match of the opening round; she eventually overcame Chinese Taipei’s Chen Ying-Chen (5-11, 11-3, 11-9, 6-11, 6-11, 12-10, 11-9).
Mixed Doubles
…………Just one match required in the opening preliminary round, Turkey’s Ibrahim Gündüz and Sibel Altinkaya beat Slovakia’s Wang Yang and Tatiana Kukulkova (11-5, 11-8, 11-6).
