Notícia

GUSTAVO TSUBOI SPRING SURPRISE IN BH

Por CBTM

Portugal's Tiago Apolónia and the host nation's Gustavo Tsuboi were the players to cause the biggest upsets in the second round of the Men's Singles event at the Liebherr Brazilian Open in Belo Horizonte on Friday 13th April 2007.

Tiago Apolónia beat second seed Singapore's Yang Zi whilst Gustavo Tsuboi defeated fifth seed, Russia's Fedor Kuzmin. To the delight of the home supporters Gustavo Tsuboi succeeded 13-11, 5-11, 11-5, 8-11, 3-11, 11-7, 11-5 whilst Tiago Apolónia won 11-4, 11-6, 11-8, 9-11, 13-11.

It was for both young men a great success but in particular for Gustavo Tsuboi it was another milestone on his way to being a senior player of note, something that three years ago was in great doubt.

Back Trouble
He enjoyed a successful junior career but competing in the ITTF World Junior Circuit Finals in Malaysia in 2003 he started to experience back problems. At the World Junior Championships in Santiago, Chile at the end of the year the pain was even greater and eventually he had to stop playing.

A period of six months followed when walking was an achievement, succeeding in the sport of table tennis had to put to the back of his mind; recovering his health was the priority. Gradually he did recover and in 2005 was able to start training again.

Best Performance
Now, in 2007 he is fully recovered and against Fedor Kuzmin in Belo Horizonte the fast attacking left hander gave one of the best performances of his career.

"It's the first time I've played Fedor Kuzmin", said Gustavo Tsuboi. "In the match I certainly had my ups and downs!" However, he had more `ups' than `downs'.

Played Fast
"When I stayed close to the table and played fast I won", Gustavo Tsuboi continued. "When I tried to play safe and I became passive I lost." Fedor Kuzmin is a powerful player, give him time and he explodes expansive topspin strokes; minimise the time and life for the Russian is not that easy.

"As the match progressed I was able to flick his service and so long as I was aggressive I knew I had a chance", continued Gustavo Tsuboi. "He had some problems with my service and when he played towards my left hip he caused me troubles."

Second Brazilian Through
Gustavo Tsuboi is one of two Brazilians through to the third round, the other being his Men's Doubles partner, Thiago Monteiro, he beat Portugal's Marcos Freitas.

However, for Hugo Hoyama and Cazuo Matsumoto there were defeats. Hugo Hoyama lost to Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov whilst Cazuo Matsumoto was beaten by Sweden's Jens Lundqvist.

Seeds Through
Defeat for the second and fifth seeds but no problems for the top seed in the Men's Singles event, Gao Ning of Singapore. He beat Canada's Pradeban Peter-Paul in four straight games.

Meanwhile, third seed Germany's Jörg Rosskopf booked his third round place but only just, he was extended to seven games by the spirited Frenchman, Adrien Mattenet whilst, fourth seed, Japan's Koji Matsushitam overcame Russia Grigori Vlassov in four games.

Successful Players
Koji Matsushita is one of two Japanese players through to the third round of the Men's Singles event, the other being Kan Yo who defeated Korea's Ko Jae Bol. Meanwhile, for Hong Kong, Jiang Tianyi beat Spain's Alfredo Carneros and Tang Peng defeated France's Abdel-Kader Salifou whilst Patrick Baum added to German success by ending the hopes of Mexico's Marcos Madrid.

In the remaining second round Men's Singles matches, Croatia's Roko Tosic beat Brazil's Eric Mancini, Canada's Zhang Peng defeated Belgium's Yannick Vostes, Sweden's Pär Gerell accounted for Korea's Cho Eon Rae and Portugal's João Monteiro ended the hopes of Russia's Evgueni Petroukhine.

ITTF - Ian Marshall