11:20 p.m.
Austria missed the last chance to stay in the world championship by a draw versus Vietnam. Andreas Horvath won in two straight sets against Chi Tranh Tran, but on the other table Andreas Efler lost by 2:1 in sets. Efler seemed to be back in his match when winning the second set to equalise, but a run of 7 points break his will in the decider.
The young Greek players Filipos Kasidokostas and Nikos Polychronopoulos won 4:0 versus Sweden B and reached the next round. In the ranking of group winners Greece is above Vietnam because of the better set balance. Now it is impossible that Greece joins into flight H with Germany and Belgium. Otherwise Vietnam could not be best of all flight winning teams, so they can't come into flight E with Japan and Netherlands.
We have to wait on the results of the first matches tomorrow morning, when the first round finishes. After that we know in which flight each team will come. The best of all group winners join flight E, the second F, the third G and the last of them will play in flight H.
9:30 p.m.
As expected both matches in the forth round
of the tournament were 4:0 victories for the favourites. France
won in straight four sets versus
Luxembourg. With the same result Portugal won against Montenegro.
The newcomer teams from Luxembourg and Montenegro didn't won a
single sets in their first appearance at Viersen.
Tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. there will be two decisive matches in flights C and D. France versus Egypt in flight C and Portugal versus Corea in flight D promise to be thrilling matches because of the standing of all four teams is almost equal. One simple set more guarantees the ticket for then main round.
8 p.m.
Switzerland was the first country missing out the next round. A draw against Austria wasn't enough to stay in tournament. Surprisingly Swiss player René Hendriksen beat the German premier league (ATSV Erlangen) player Andreas Efler. At the same time Austrian Andreas Horvath won in 10 and 11 innings versus Torsten Danielsson in great manner.
Also for the Czech team the tournament is finished after the preliminaries. The draw versus Greece brought them to 2:2 match points, but because of their negative set balance must Greece or Sweden B will overcome them.
5 p.m.
The first round is played. In flight A there was a draw between the second team of defending champion Sweden and the Czech Republic. Because of their better frame balance Sweden only plays at 8 p.m. versus the Greec, which have arrived in the meantime, while the Czechs now are fighting for their last chance.
Vietnam defeated Switzerland by 2-0. That means
that Austria first has to play their neighbours in the Alps and
the top spot in this flight will be
decided at 8 p.m. in the match between Austria and Vietnam.
Korea outclassed Montenegro, which is taking part for the first time,completely. The Korean team played a team average of 1.7 and Sung Won Choi and Kim Kyoun-Roul are topping the single rankings.
On the other tables Luxembourg was whitewashed by Egypt.
1 p.m.
The balls are rolling in the Viersen Festhalle.
There was a late change in
the Czech team where Vlastislav Tautermann replaces Ivo Gazdos
in second
position. For the first time ever one team was missing for the
opening
ceremony. Because of a general strike in Greece Filipos Kasidokostas
and
Nikos Plychronopoulos still were on their plane.
Also this year we will offer a live video stream
of the action on table one
here.