Group Stages
Men
In the men's tournament, highly-rated 18-year-old Paul Drinkhall recovered from an opening 4-2 defeat by France's Christophe Legout to beat Spaniard Victor Sanchez 4-3. Having lost one and won one, Paul Drinkhall then annihilated the world number 70 Slobodan Grujic 4-0 to go top of the group and secure entry into the next stage.
Gavin Rumgay started with an unexpected victory, over no. 94 in the world, Tomas Keinath. This was followed by a defeat to Italy’s Mihai Bobocia, which meant he could still qualify in second place if he won the next match, but Rui Wu Tan proved to be too strong winning 4-1.
Adam Robertson had a day to forget, with defeats by Aleksandar Karakasevic and David Zombory, all but ending his hopes of qualification. In his last match Adam got off to a good start, swapping set wins with the Pole Zeng Yi Wand, Adam was looking at going out on a high, unfortunately Wang scraped through the last two sets to win 4-2.
Women
Having already overcome a massive 151 places in the world rankings list to beat Fang Zhu 4-3, Joanna Parker then destroyed Barbora Balazova to put herself on top of the group with one match still to play. She was, however, still far from safe, needing to win to guarantee getting through. Despite an extremely close fought battle, Cornelia Vaida eventually got the better of her, 4-3. This put her joint first with Zhu and Vaida, but she lost out due to match points, coming in third.
Fellow compatriot and recently crowned National Champion (U21, Women’s and Women’s Doubles) Kelly Sibley did not fare so well. Having lost her first match, she had to win her second and final one of the group stages (only three people in her group) to get through. Kelly, however, was not able to overcome the Ukrainian who is ranked 35 places higher, going out 4-1.
Results
Joanna Parker 233 bt. Fang Zhu (ESP) 83
6-11, 11-13, 11-6, 11-8, 2-11, 11-7, 11-6
Joanna Parker bt. Barbora Balazova (SVK) 283
11-9, 12-10, 11-4, 11-7
Cornelia Vaida bt. Joanna Parker
11-6, 13-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-13, 9-11, 11-3
Viktoria Palovich (BLR) 43 bt. Kelly Sibley 186
11-7, 11-6, 11-4, 11-5
Margaryta Pesotska bt. Kelly Sibley
11-2, 6-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-9
Christophe Legout (FRA) 62 bt Paul Drinkhall 194
12-10,11-9,10-12,11-4,5-11,11-5
Paul Drinkhall bt. Victor Sanchez (ESP) 241:
11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 6-11, 9-11, 11-8
Paul Drinkhall bt. Slobodan Grujic
12-10, 11-4, 11-2, 11-5
Gavin Rumgay 308 bt. Thomas Keinath (SVK) 94
8-11, 4-11,13-11,11-2,5-11,11-8, 11-6
Mihai Bobocia (ITA) 130 bt. Gavin Rumgay
11-9, 11-7, 14-12, 11-5
Rui Wu Tan bt. Gavin Rumgay 7-11, 11-1, 14-12, 11-9, 11-6
Aleksandar Karakasevic (SRB) 48 bt.
Adam Robertson 181
6-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-5, 11-8
David Zombory bt. Adam Robertson
Zeng Yi Wang bt. Adam Robertson
11-9, 9-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9
Unfortunately due to the count back system Joanna Parker did not progress to the last 32 despite some excellent results.
