European table tennis champion Dang Qiu barely won his opening match at the World Championships in South Africa.
The 26-year-old from Borussia Düsseldorf defeated the surprisingly strong Brazilian Vitor Ishiy 4-2 in sets. In the second round, the world number ten meets Sathiyan Gnanasekaran from India.
The world number 17. Patrick Franziska won the duel with his Bundesliga colleague Cedric Nuytinck from Belgium 4:1. Both play together for the Champions League winner 1. FC Saarbrücken.
“Cedric and I are very good friends, we’ve known each other since we were young, we’ve played in a team in Saarbrücken all season: it’s always disgusting to have to compete against each other,” said 30-year-old Franziska.
Benedikt Duda was the only German international to drop out in the first round in Durban. The 29-year-old from TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt lost 3:4 to Croatian Filip Zeljko after a 3:1 set lead.