Tomas lifts the mood

Tomas Konecny lifted the spirits of the home crowd as he recorded a straight games win over Russian Anton Kotov (11-4, 11-7, 11-4, 11-9).

It was a commanding display from Konecny, who was certainly roused by his supporters. Frenchman Enzo Angles kept up the European mood by winning against Uzbekistan’s Elmurod Kholikov 4-0 (11-3, 11-4, 11-7, 11-4).

Tough start for home favorites

Czech Republic’s Frantisek Onderka could not keep the host nation’s fans happy as he lost out to Bulgaria’s Vadim Yarashenka (11-5, 11-3, 7-11, 11-9, 14-12).

Despite pushing Yarashenka back into repeated backhands, Onderka had little luck in getting the final shot in. It was patient play from the Bulgarian, who need no more than four games to go through. On table 13, India’s Amalraj Anthony moved on to the next round after his Ukrainian opponent Bohdan Sinkevych had to withdraw.

Mengel and Rolland through

European fans would be delighted to see the incoming results on the first day here in Czech Republic, as France’s Jules Rolland and German Steffen Mengel both recorded first round victories.

Rolland needed five games to see off Samuel Kaluzny from Slovakia (11-9, 3-11, 11-4, 12-10, 11-1). His European compatriot Mengel had a tougher task with Swiss Cedric Tschanz giving the German a hard time and stretching the match to six games (11-2, 6-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-3, 11-1).

India off the mark

Sutirtha Mukherjee had a good start to the week in Olomouc as she saw off the challenge of host nation’s Anna Matejovska 4-2 (11-7, 4-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-4, 11-4).

The Indian took the first game, but had to dig deep as Matejovska hit back with strong returns on the volley. Mukherjee eventually found her feet and closed the game in six. Meanwhile, Matejovska’s compatriot Tamara Tomanova fared better as she beat Slovakian Eva Jurkova by the same scoreline (11-2, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 12-14, 11-2).

So who’s seeded?

Check out who gets the nod ahead of the main stage event in two days, right here:

Action commences!

Here’s the schedule for day one of the qualification tournament in Olomouc: