The German-Dutch combo of Patrick Franziska and Jonathan Groth and Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa defended their Czech Open titles from 2017 with impressive wins in Olomuoc on Sunday.
Franziska and Groth were top-seeded in the men’s Doubles and swept aside the finals challenge from Swedes Mattias Falck and Kristian Karlsson, 3-1, while Ishikawa, now ranked no. 4 worldwide, defeated China’s Jia Wen, four sets to two.
China provided the winners in the men’s Singles with Peifeng Zheng and the women’s Doubles with Rui Zhang and Gaoyang Liu. Summaries:
ITTF Czech Open
Olomuoc (CZE) ~ 23-26 August 2018
(Full results here)
Men’s Singles: 1. Peifeng Zheng (CHN); 2. Marcos Freitas (POR); 3. Liam Pitchford (ENG) and Tomokazu Harimoto (JPN). Semis: Zheng d. Pitchford, 4-1; Freitas d. Harimoto, 4-3. Final: Zheng d. Freitas, 4-2.
Men’s Doubles: 1. Patrick Franziska (GER)/Jonathan Groth (DEN); 2. Mattias Falck/Kristian Karlsson (SWE); 3. Ruwen Filus/Ricardo Walther (GER) and Anders Lind (DEN)/Bence Majoros (HUN). Semis: Falck/Karlsson d. Filus/Walther, 3-0; Franziska/Groth d. Lind/Majoros, 3-0. Final: Franziska/Groth d. Falck/Karlsson, 3-1.
Women’s Singles: 1. Kasumi Ishikawa (JPN); 2. Jia Wen (CHN); 3. Saki Shibata (JPN) and Yang Wu (CHN). Semis: Ishikawa d. Shibata, 4-1; Wen d. Wu, 4-1. Final: Ishikawa d. Wen, 4-2.
Women’s Doubles: 1. Rui Zhang/Gaoyang Liu (CHN); 2. Jiayi Sun (CRO)/Jian Zeng (SGP); 3. Miu Hirano/Hina Hayata (JPN) and Mima Ito/Kasumi Ishikawa (JPN). Semis: Sun/Zeng d. Hayata/Hirano, 3-1; Liu/Zhang d. Ishikawa/Ito, 3-2. Final: Zhang/Liu d. Sun/Zeng, 3-0.
