| Petr Korbel opens day 2 at WTTC 3-0 over Joao Monteiro Image from ETTU |
GROUP A
Group A saw China continue their domination, they are yet to drop a set in their two team matches so far. The team of Wang Hao, Zhang Jike and Xu Xin dispatched of North Korea with three 3-0 matches, so far they are looking quite invincible in their group stage. It was disappointment for Sweden who suffered a 3-0 loss to Hong Kong. All three of the matches were 3-2 margins and each of the 5th set scores was 11-9 or 12-10. Tomorrow will be a classic matchup of China v. Sweden but the Swedes aren't likely to even win a set at this rate. In the last group match Greece dispatched of Slovenia 3-0 also with all straight set matches.
GROUP B
Group B saw Germany answer the crowd with a 3-0 win over Singapore. This is Group B's 3rd round match so far. Ovtcharov led a 3-1 win over Gao Ning, Timo Boll exerted his class 3-0 over Yang Zi and Patrick Baum won 3-1 against Pang Xue Jie. Another surprise outcome came as the Czech Republic led a 3-0 victory over Portugal. Petr Korbel showed his further class by beating Joao Apolonia 3-1. Prokopcov took Marcos Freitas out in the 5th set, another fantastic result for Czech Rep. and Michael Obeslo won 3-0 over Andre Silva to claim victory for the Czechs, their first team win of the tournament. Another somewhat upset was Serbia's 3-0 win over Spain. Aleksander Karakasevic, Pete Zolt and Marko Jevtovic were a team that yesterday upset the Czech Republic 3-0, they showed no signs of stopping in this match.
GROUP C
Korea were back on their feet after a tight matchup on day 1 against Chinese Taipei, fortunately they survived that encounter and recovered to beat Denmark 3-0 on day 2. The young French team were shocked after a very short matchup against Austria. Austria won the showdown 3-0, a surprise outcome. Robert Gardos stole away a 3-1 win over Simon Gauzy, Stefan Fegerl beat Emmanuel Lebesson in straight sets and Chen Weixing finished up for Austria with a 3-1 win over Tristan Flore. Chinese Taipei played the last match of the day and took a 4 match win over Hungary. The surprise coming in the first match from Adam Pattantyus who beat Chuang Chih-Yuan, 3-0! Daniel Zwickl almost took a 2nd match, losing in 5 to Wu Chih-Chi.
GROUP D
Group D held perhaps the most exciting matches of the day. The first of course was Poland's monumental win over Japan. See more on that HERE. The second matchup was a close encounter also, Russia and Croatia. Croatia worked their way to a 2-1 lead after Andrej Gacina took a 4 set win over Alexey Smirnov and Croatia's young 3rd player Tomislav Kolarek repeated his promising show by winning in 5 sets over Alexander Shibaev. Smirnov drew things even with a 3-1 win over 6 time Olympian Zoran Primorac. The deciding match was a battle of mentality. Andrej Gacina and Kirill Skachkov, Ochsenhausen teammates and training partners in the Bundesliga, facing each other for their countries in the decider. Gacina stole the first set, but Skachkov found his ground and swiftly ended the game in 4 sets, earning a 3-2 win for Russia. Belarus made short work of Slovak Republic, Thomas Keinath not able to repeat his day 1 efforts out on the table, losing 3-0 to Samsonov.
Andrej Gacina claims the first match for Croatia
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