After the women’s singles preliminary rounds were completed on the second of six competition days, four German players surprisingly made it through to the main round as third in their groups, having been seeded only fifth (Andrea Neu and Nadine Klein) or even sixth (Juliane Brauckmann and Anke Leidenberger).
Margie Alley/USA and Rie Koyama/JPN, two of the top favourites, won their groups convincingly, with only Margie Alley dropping one game. In the other two groups, second seeds Elisabeth Ildal/DEN and Melanie Jeska/GER also dominated without losing a match, with defending champion Jeska not dropping a single game.
The men started the second day of competition in the morning with their preliminary round doubles groups. In the main class, the favourites prevailed in six of the seven groups. The biggest surprise came in Group 5, where the two Germans Ingo Volker Rehse/Schnittker, seeded third, secured the group victory.
On the third day, the mixed preliminary round groups will be played, before the men’s 2 and 3 compete in the round of 64 in the singles in the afternoon.