All three Japanese players cruised into the main draw of the Qatar Open table tennis tournament, after winning their preliminary matches at the Aspire Dome yesterday. Yukiya Uda survived a seven-game thriller against Slovenia’s Darko Jorgic (11-7, 8-11, 11-8, 5-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-9) while Masataka Morizono required one game less to beat French opponent Tristan Flore (11-8, 11-7, 6-11, 11-7, 5-11, 11-6). Later, Takuya Jin beat Czech Republic’s Tomas Polansky (11-9, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-7) to make it a good day for Japan. 
Meanwhile, Andrej Gacina negotiated an absolute thriller of a match in the evening session to book his place in the main draw. Facing a late comeback challenge from China’s Xiang Peng, the Croatian held on to see off the World Junior champion in a dramatic seven-game affair (11-8, 11-9, 11-7, 7-11, 9-11, 6-11, 11-3).
Gacina said he took the risks in the seventh and final game and it paid him rich dividends. “He was 7-5 up in the third game and I managed to fight back to win it to lead 3-0. I think he relaxed a little bit and started to play better in the fourth. I thought I kept my level but he changed his tactics a little bit, he changed his serve and I had some problems with it… In the last game I told myself I had to go all in and risk it because if I continued to play the same I would have lost today” said Gacina.
The other Croatian in action Frane Kojic needed just four games to stun Slovakia’s Wang Yang (11-6, 11-8, 11-6, 11-4). Portugal’s Marcos Freitas also successfully negotiated a tricky tie against Germany’s Benedikt Duda by a 4-2 score-line (9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 5-11, 11-9, 11-9).
One member of the reigning men’s doubles World Championships winning pair, Spain’s Alvaro Robles displayed his class in the singles game with a stunning win against World No 31  Sathiyan Gnanasekaran of India (11-9, 6-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-4).
In the women’s singles, Romania’s Bernadette Szocs bowed out of the competition. Szocs, one of the favourites to progress through the qualification stages, failed to capitalise on her two-game advantage against German Shan Xiaona (8-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-8, 13-11).
Semi-finalist at the 2019 Women’s World Cup Lily Zhang also suffered defeat at the hands of World Junior champion Miyu Nagasaki, the American youngster prevailing 4-1 (11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 11-7, 11-5).