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Liebherr French Open

Youth Overcomes Experience

Youth overcame experience, as the matches in the qualification stage the Men’s Singles event at the Liebherr French Open in Toulouse came to a close on Thursday 1st November 2007.

Teenagers, Abdel-Kader Salifou of France and Japan’s Kenji Matsudaira, the elder brother of the reigning World Junior champion, Kenta Matsudaira, both rose to the occasion.

Abdel-Kader Salifou, having lost to India’s Anirban Nandi in a close seven games duel one day earlier, was in outstanding form on the second day of play. He beat the vastly experienced Koji Matsushita of Japan in five games, a win that secured the young Frenchman of a place in the main draw.

Earlier in the proceedings Koji Matsushita had beaten Anirban Nandi in five games and so on games ratio it was first place in the group for the Frenchman.

Meanwhile, Kenji Matsudaira continued his good form; having overcome Sweden’s Fabian Akerström, a semi-finalist in the Boys’ Singles event at the ITTF World Junior Championships in 2005, he defeated Argentina’s Liu Song. The Argentine is the reigning Latin American Men’s Singles champion and one month ago was on duty at the prestigious Liebherr Men’s World Cup in Barcelona.

Defeats for two highly rated players but those were the only major surprises on the second day of competition.

Winner of the French Open in 1997, Christophe Legout concluded his group stage matches with victory over England’s Darius Knight, whilst in the Women’s Singles event there were comfortable victories for the three players who were just shy of a direct entry.

Croatia’s Sandra Paovic beat the Czech Republic’s Katerina Penkavova in straight games, China’s Chen Qing defeated Russia’s Anastasia Voronova by the same margin and not to be left out Japan’s Ai Fujinuma emulated the two highest World Ranking players in the Women’s Singles qualification stage by overcoming England’s Kelly Sibley.