 Omar Assar en route to an impressive victory over Thomas Le Breton
Photo By: Irek Kanabrodski
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5/28/2008
Polish Youth Open - ITTF Junior Circuit
Belgium’s Florent Lamoque, Egypt’s Omar Assar, Sweden’s Mattias Oversjo plus the Japanese duo of Asuka Machi and Yuki Hirano were the players to cause the principal upsets on the opening day of play at the Polish Youth Open in Cetniewo on Wednesday 28th May 2008.
All beat higher rated opposition; however, for the top two seeds there were no major trials and tribulations.
Number one seed, Japan’s Kenta Matsudaira defeated Scotland’s Craig Howieson and the Czech Republic’s Pavel Sirucek to progress to round three, whilst at the same stage the host nation’s Patryk Chojnowski enjoyed success.
He defeated Belgium’s Emilien Van Rossome and Romania’s Hunor Szocs.
No Place However, there was no place in the third round for the young men seeded three and four.
Third seed Russia’s Alexander Shibaev was a non starter, so Denmark’s Mikkel Hindersson did not have to raise a racket in anger but on his first visit to the table in the main event it was to be disappointment. He lost a close seven games encounter against Yuki Hirano, the younger brother of Sayaka Hirano and in 2007 the winner of the Boys’ Singles title at the Japanese Hopes Championships.
Not to be outdone by his compatriot, Asuka Machi also hit form and he caused the host nation pain. He defeated Patryk Jendrzejewski and the highly rated Pawel Fertikowski to book his place in round three.
Exellent Form Similarly, Belgium’s Florent Lamoque was in outstanding form, he overcame Hungary’s Gergely Perei in round one before ousting Sweden’s Mattias Karlsson in round two.
The victory over the Swede, who uses short pimples on the forehand and reversed rubber on the backhand, was a most notable performance; Mattias Karlsson has proved himself one of the junior players of the year. He won the Boys’ Singles title at both the Hungarian Junior Open and the Venezuelan Junior Open.
Kristian Karlsson Defeat for Mattias Karlsson and it wasn’t a good day for his namesake but no relation, Kristian Karlsson.
He lost to Mattias Oversjo in round two having beaten Russia’s Anton Shevchenko in the opening round.
Omar Assar Good performances from European and Asian players and also from an African. Egypt’s Omar Assar was in blistering form; he defeated Sweden’s Harald Andersson and then France’s Thomas Le Breton to reserve his place in round three.
The win against Thomas Le Breton was of particular note, the Frenchman was been a member of the European Boys’ Team who won gold at the ITTF World Cadet Challenge in Cape Town in 2007.
Through to Round Three Defeat for France but there was success. Victorien Le Guen came through safely as did three Germans Patrik Fransika, Christoph Schmidl and Erik Bottroff with Japan’s Koki Niwa, Russia’s Roman Slepenkov, Hungary’s Daniel Kosiba, Poland’s Mateisz Golebowski and Iran’s Noshad Alamiyan completing the line up.
Doubles Meanwhile, in the Junior Boys’ Doubles the two top seeded partnerships both reached the third round without alarm. It was a comparatively trouble free passage for Japan’s Kenta Matsudaira and Koki Niwa as it was for the Polish duo of Patryk Chojnowski and Pawel Fertikowski.
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