Its been a challenging few days for the Irish Men’s Team at the World Team Championships.Drawn in a difficult group, the aim at the outset was a top 3 finish, which would give the team a chance to play for promotion to Division Two. First up was Indonesia, top seed in the Division and favourites for the Division 3 Title. Ireland struggled against their higher ranked opponents, with McCreery losing in 4 to Pramono, Murphy losing out to World Ranked 538 Santoso in 5 sets before Knox in his World Team Championships debut lost to Aji.
Next up was Moldova – Nilsson picked up his demoralised team and they delivered for him in fine style, with a 3-1 victory.Paul McCreery was in fine form, winning both of his matches, while Murphy defeated Moldova No.1 Igor Ni comfortably.
Ireland then faced two crucial matches against Algeria and Ecuador. With the first two results going as predicted, the Irish needed to spring a surprise. Unfortunately, they could not deliver as the Irish suffered 3-0 defeats in both matches. National Champion Murphy put up a resilient performance against Algerian Boudjaja(WR 433), again losing a 5 setter – this time after taking the first two sets. McCreery opened against Ecuador with a similar performance against another higher ranked opponent – WR 523 Coello. The result was again the same – McCreery took the first two sets before the South American ramped up the gears to take a 5 set thriller.
Tonight, the Irish still have a slim chance of squeezing in to the top 3 in the group. They face Dominican Republic, who have also suffered losses to Ecuador and Indonesia. If Ireland win and Ecuador beat Algeria as expected, the Irish will tie for 3rd place with Dominican Republic.
Division 3 – Group Ihttp://www.ittf.com/ittf_team_events/team_groups_of_6_web.asp?Tour_Code=1896&s_Event_type=MGTEM&Group_no=9
Final Opponent Preview: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – Seeded 57
Top Players
*Lin – 69
Batista – 509
Santos – 587