Andrew Baggaley was the man in form at the GAC Group 2012 ITTF World Tour Polish Open with a singles run to the last 32 after beating the host nation’s Bartosz Such in the first round.
The 29-year-old advanced through his group with two tight victories over France’s Benjamin Brossier and Sweden’s Harald Andersson. Baggaley first beat Brossier 4-2 before scraping past the Swede 11-7 in a seventh game thriller in Poznan.
Following that up, he advanced to the last 32 after a victory over Polish star Such (WR 103) despite falling 2-1 behind.
After conceding that early deficit he stormed through the final three games 11-6, 11-5, 11-8 to secure his place in the next round against Hong Kong’s Tianyi Jiang. Unfortunately, Jiang (WR 19) proved a step too far for the Englishman as he fell to a 4-1 defeat although all of the games were evenly contested.
Neither of Baggaley’s teammates in Poland could follow his progression to the first round as both Liam Pitchford and Darius Knight fell in the qualifying rounds.
Pitchford paid for an opening 4-3 loss to Belgium’s Robin Devos by being knocked out on countback despite his 4-2 triumph over Mattias Oversjo (SWE).
Knight, meanwhile, won his opening fixture against Kristian Kobes only to then lose a seven-game marathon himself, eventually going down 11-3 in a one-sided deciding game.
Neither of the English doubles pairings were able to get far in Poland while Pitchford, after defeating Asuka Sakai (JPN) in his opening under-21s match, was then defeated by another Asian player, Wang Yang (SVK) 3-2 in a topsy-turvey last 16 encounter.
GAC Group 2012 ITTF World Tour Polish Open, Poznan
Men’s Singles Qualifying Groups:
Group 3:
Andrew Baggaley bt Benjamin Brossier (FRA) 4-2 (9-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-4, 11-6, 11-8)
Andrew Baggaley bt Harald Andersson (SWE) 4-3 (11-5, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 6-11, 11-7)
Group 4:
Robin Devos (BEL) bt Liam Pitchford 4-3 (9-11, 7-11, 12-10, 12-14, 11-8, 11-7, 11-9)
Liam Pitchford bt Mattias Oversjo (SWE) 4-2 (11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 15-13, 9-11, 12-10)
Group 19:
Darius Knight bt Kristian Kobes (SVK) 4-1 (11-5, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 14-12)
Andrei Filimon (ROU) bt Darius Knight 4-3 (9-11, 11-7, 9-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-3)
First Round:
Andrew Baggaley bt Bartosz Such (POL) 4-2 (8-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-8)
Last 32:
Tianyi Jiang (HKG) bt Andrew Baggaley 4-1 (11-8, 11-9, 14-12, 14-16, 11-7)
Boy’s Under-21s:
Round of 32:
Liam Pitchford bt Asuka Sakai (JPN) 3-2 (11-3, 8-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-8)
Round of 16:
Wang Yang (SVK) bt Liam Pitchford 3-2 (11-8, 3-11, 11-4, 3-11, 11-7)
Men’s Doubles:
Pre-rounds:
Jakub Kosowski/Bartosz Such (POL) bt Darius Knight/Liam Pitchford 3-2 (11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 4-11, 12-10)
Andrew Baggaley/Marc Duran (ESP) bt Seb Movaro (ARG)/Kyle Morgenroth (USA) 3-0 (11-3, 11-4, 11-6)
Daniel Kosiba/Krisztian Nagy (HUN) bt Andrew Baggaley/Marc Duran (ESP) 3-1 (11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7)