Polish and Indian players share the spoils
Poland’s Natalia Partyka is through to the fourth preliminary round of the women’s singles event following a solid display against Indian opponent Sutirtha Mukherjee: with the score all-square at one game apiece, Partyka took her performance up a gear to claim the next three consecutive games (11-2, 8-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-8).
However, Partyka’s fellow compatriot Natalia Bajor is out of the running after she ended up on the wrong side of a seven-game match with another Indian player in the form of Sreeja Akula (8-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-9, 11-9, 6-11, 11-9).
Hina Hayata too strong for up-and-coming talent
Experiencing an early scare in her preliminary round three meeting with Korea Republic’s Shin Yubin, but Japan’s Hina Hayata is now just one win away from the main draw in Olomouc after posting a 4-2 victory over the 15-year-old star (7-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-4, 12-10).
The other Japanese player to prevail in the 10.20am session was Yurika Taira, who also required six games as she came out on top against Monaco’s Yang Xiaoxin (11-7, 9-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-7).
Czech pair narrowly miss out
A brave effort but it was an opening round defeat nonetheless for the host nation’s Tomas Tregler and Dana Cechova, who managed to fight back from two games down to draw level. But, it wasn’t enough as Brazil’s Gustavo Tsuboi and Bruna Takahashi squeezed over the line by a 3-2 score-line (11-6, 11-5, 10-12, 7-11, 11-4).
Play underway
Here’s the schedule for day two of the qualification tournament in Olomouc: