Belgian Denies Ninth Seed Xi Minjie in Men's SingleBelgian Closset Malc surprised China by eliminated ninth seed Xi Minjie in the first round of men's singles of Universiade table tennis competitions.Closset Malc, a new face in the tournament, outlasted Xi Minjie 3-2. Malc leveled Xi in the first two see-saw sets. In the third set, Malc once led 16-12 but squandered the lead and was caught up by Xi 18-18 and 19-19. Malc had a set point afterward but he didn't convert it and let Xi scored three straight points to make it 2-1. Starting from the fourth set, Malc showed his firmness to win, led all the way to 15-9 and 20-15. This time, Malc didn't let the victory slip from his grasp leveled again 2-2 when Xi put Malc's smash into net. In the decider, Malc rushed ahead 5-0 with his "Alley!" halloa before a time-out from China. He led 10-3 to exchanged the court and enlarged the margin to 19-8 before serving out the marathon match 21-8. "I am very happy now, because this is in China and Xi is a good player." said Malc after the match, "I saw the men's team final two days ago and thought Xi was a strong paddler." Malc said he well prepared for the match, "I think if I play normal and slow, I can't win, but if I play aggressively, I have the chance." "In the fifth set, I strived for every point, didn't think I am leading 5 points. Chinese paddler can make 20 points in a row." Malc will face Chuan Chih-Yuan from Chinese Taipei, who is the fourth seed of the tournament, in the second round. |
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