The second day of the tournament in Wels started in the morning of Wednesday with the doubles matches in the three men’s and women’s classes.
In the seven preliminary round groups of Men I, the three top-seeded pairs Peter Derheld/Jesper Jerslund (GER/DEN), Hamid Ezzat-Ahmadi/Ilya Rozenblat (USA) and Thorsten Boomhuis/Thorsten Flues (GER) were convincing, winning their matches without exception with 3:0 points and 9:0 games. If everything goes according to plan in the main round on Friday, there will already be a duel in the semi-finals between the last world champions Derheld/Jerslund and their predecessors Boomhuis/Flues, who won this duel by a razor-thin margin at the German Open in May.
In the three preliminary round groups of Women’s I, only the two Japanese Mayumi Kanie/Rie Koyama managed to win their group without losing a game. While Elisabeth Ildal/Anat Robinson (DEN/ISR) were the top seed in their group, Silke Kind/Gabi Salingre surprised with their group win. The reigning World Champions Jutta Ahmerkamp-Böhme/Brigitte Plehn (GER) lost by a hair’s breadth to Ildal/Robinson, but are still well in the running.
In the mixed doubles, three pairs won in the seven preliminary groups in the afternoon without losing a game and are therefore the first contenders for the title: Jutta Ahmerkamp-Böhme/Lars Rokitta, Silke Kind/Thorsten Flues (both GER) and Rie Koyama/Hiromichi Kawai (JPN). Defending champions Margie Alley/Ilya Rozenblat (USA) dropped only one game and are also hot title contenders.