Austrian Teenager Causes Opening Day Shock
Austria’s nineteen year old, Stefan Fegerl was the
player to cause the major surprise on Tuesday 15th January
2008 at the Slovenian Open in Velenje; he beat Germany’s
Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth in five games in the Qualification Stage
of the Men’s Singles event.
Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth currently occupies the no. 79 spot
on the ITTF Men’s World Ranking list and at the Slovenian
Open, the first ITTF Pro Tour tournament of the year, was
the highest world ranked player in the qualification stage
of proceedings.
Meanwhile, Stefan Fegerl, ranked no. 429, is assured of a
place in the second stage of tournament. In his opening encounter
he beat Italy’s Mattia Crotti.
The one other upset of note on the first day of play was
the defeat of Hungary’s Janos Jakab by seventeen year
old Patryk Chojnowski of Poland; Janos Jakab is currently
ranked no. 106 whilst the Polish teenager is at no. 536.
Otherwise, it was very much as per the pecking order of the
ITTF World Rankings.
Croatia’s Roko Tosic, Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro
and Chinese Taipei’s Wu Chih-Chi the second, third and
fourth highest world ranked players in the Qualification Stage
of the Men’s Singles event all enjoyed opening day successes,
as did the top four ladies in the counterpart Women’s
Singles event.
The German trio of Kristin Silbereisen, Laura Stumper and
Zhenqi Barthel alongside Chinese Taipei’s Lu Yun-Feng
came through without due alarm
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"Source:
ITTF Press Release