Exciting start to Qatar Open table tennis
DOHA, March 7, 2018 - The qualifying rounds of the Men's and Women's Singles of the 2018 ITTF World Tour Platinum Qatar Open, which includes 34 groups from the top of the standings to the 64th round, began at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena in Doha on Tuesday.
Every player in the qualifiers is expected to play two matches en route the main rounds which begin on March 8.
In one of the highlights of the day, France's Alexandre Robinot, winner of the Men's Singles event at the 2018 French National Championships, defeated Jeoung Youngsik, winner in the GAG Group 2015 ITTF World Tour in both Australia and Korea, in four straight games (11-8, 11-5, 11-8, 13-11) while England's Liam Pitchford accounted for the defeat of China's Xue Fei, crowned World Junior Champion just over three months ago in Riva del Garda.
Pitchford emerged successful in a quite monumental contest (7-11, 11-5, 7-11, 11-6, 7-11, 20-18, 12-10) to register a memorable win.
For Qatar's national team player Abdul Aziz al Hajjaji, who was playing in Group 33, the tournament did not start on a good note as he lost 0-4 (11-4, 11-6, 11-5, 11-2) to Portugal's Joao Monteiro while his compatriot Nawaf al Maliki, a promising player in Group 32, lost to India's Joshua Sumagit by 1-4 (11-9, 6-11, 7-11, 4-11, 5-11).
Elsewhere, Qatar's promising star Mohamed Abdel Wahab, who is a professional in Denmark, was pipped by Hong Kong's Nam Park in Group 30, which also includes strong Austrian player Robert Gardos. He lost 0-4 (5-11,2-11,4-11,5-11) to Park.
In the women's event, Sweden's Li Fen, crowned European champion in 2013 in Schwechat, Austria, got off to a flying start with her defeat of No. 59-ranked Germany's Sabine Winter.
The 41-year-old, listed at No. 205 on the current Women's World Rankings, won in six games (10-12, 11-9, 10-12, 11-5, 11-3, 11-3).
China's Zhang Rui and Sun Mingyang also excelled. Zhang Rui beat Spain's Maria Xiao (11-5, 11-2, 11-5, 12-10) and Mingyang accounted for Hungary's Szandra Pergel (11-8, 11-4, 11-5, 11-9). Miyu Nagasaki defeated Szandra Pergel.
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