The fifth day of competition at the 6th PPP World Championships in Lignano brought the first big surprises. In the mixed quarter-finals in the morning, joint favourites Elisabeth Ildal/Jean-Marc Darragon (DEN/FRA) were eliminated by Andrea Müllner/Heiko Probst, who narrowly won in five games.
Jesper Jerslund/Stefan Schmechel (DEN/GER) were eliminated even more narrowly in the men’s doubles quarter-finals, losing to the French pair Thierry Cocusse and Remy Salaun. In the women’s doubles, neither of the top-seeded pairs reached the semi-finals, with Juliane Brauckmann/Silke Kind (GER) losing to their compatriots Nadine Klein/Anke Leidenberger in four games and Digna Baynes/Rie Koyama (CHI/JPN) losing to Elke Busch-de Groot/Eszter Agnes-Nagy (GER/HUN) in five games.
The surprises continued in the singles in the afternoon. First, Barao Cardadeiro (POR) lost to World Championship newcomer Pierfrancesco Cendron (ITA) and Jean-Marc Darragon (FRA) lost to Karlheinz Moxter (GER), who is also playing in his first World Championship, in the round of 16. In the next round, Moxter also eliminated Cendron to reach the semi-finals, where three of the four favourites, Thorsten Flues (GER), Ilya Rozenblat (USA) and Ghislain Planty (FRA), are also competing.
In the women’s singles, two favourites were knocked out in the quarter-finals. Rie Koyama, multiple world champion from Japan, had to congratulate Elvira Garcia from Spain after five games, while Silke Kind (GER) needed only four games to eliminate Elisabeth Ildal (DEN), the second of the two top seeds. Margie Alley (USA) and Melanie Jeska (GER), on the other hand, made it to the semi-finals as expected.
A total of only three players remain in contention for three titles on tomorrow’s final day. In addition to the two defending champions in the top classes, Thorsten Flues and Melanie Jeska, Patrick Erdrich (GER) is also still in contention in Class 2, where he is competing in the singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Sixteen other players still have the chance to win two titles, including Silke Kind, Norbert Hase and Heiko Probst (all GER), Hamid Ezzat-Ahmadi and Ilya Rozenblat (both USA) and Elvira Garcia (ESP) in the two main classes.
In the lower competition classes 2 and 3, these ten players still have the chance to win two titles: Andrea Müllner, Claudia Praße, Claudia Rehr, Petra Kühnert, Roswitha Lamm, Sandra Müller, Horst Schunk, Reinhard Augstein and Wolfgang Krebs (all GER) as well as Manuel Lopez Lobarinas (ESP).
Another 56 players reached the semi final in one category and have still the chance to become World Champion. Start of the semi finals is at 9 am on Sunday, the finals will start at 1.20 pm, and the tournament will end with the award ceremony at 3.20 pm and the closing ceremony after that in the main hall of Bella Italia Village in Lignano.