01/08/2019 23:00
First day of competition filled with fans and surprises in Malbork
2019 World Tour 1-Star - Malbork
Malbork, Poland, August 1, 2019. Hundreds of fans filled the stadium to surprise players and organisers in Malbork on the first day of the historic 1-Star World Tour event held right by the walls of the local, iconic castle. However, the large crowd was not the only surprise – since the first and second seeds of the qualification round had to leave the competition.
The day began with a little rain shower but it did not stop the spectators in Malbork from supporting their favourite teams. In the first match of the day, the youngsters from Italy were up for a challenge against the Japanese top seeds. The first tiebreak of the day accounted for the first major upset of the tournament as well – as Italy’s Manuel Alfieri and Mauro Sacripanti stormed to a 15-5 victory over Yu Koshikawa and Jumpei Ikeda to progress to the second round.
There was a lot of adrenaline among the fans as local youngsters Mateusz Florczyk/Jakub Nowak and Czech Republic’s Jindrich Weiss/Martin Tichy delivered a dramatic first set, which the visitors eventually seized at 33-31. After taking the longest set of the day in Malbork, the Czech team claimed their second match against Austria’s Arwin Kopschar/Paul Pascariuc as well to secure their spot in the Main Draw.
The best moment for the local fans came at the end of the day when Polish boys Michal Kądzioła and Marcin Ociepski were fighting for their first Main Draw appearance together against Norway. In the previous game, after a real thriller they beat Team Serbia’s no. 2 seed Djordje Klasnic and Milos Milic 22-20 in the tiebreaker.
The full stadium witnessed another victory by the home team and the organisers could not ask for a better way to end the day. “We did not expect so many people on the first day of competition. The crowd was amazing. We hope the next days will be the same or even better and hopefully the sun will come out and Polish teams will account for more excitement,” said Marcin Szczechowicz, event promoter.
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