Matt Davidson has made the semi-finals of the IWT French Open for the first time in his career. He got off to a great start, getting the better of world no 4 Nicolas Lenggenhager in a testing battle. Lenggenhager took table tennis and 21-10 and badminton 21-13, before Davidson managed to turn the match around. Davidson got himself back in the match, taking squash 21-12 and finished it off with a very dominant performance in tennis, taking the match +7 (10-21 13-21 21-12 21-4).
His quarter-final opponent was his doubles partner Duncan Stahl. Stahl defeated French hopeful Lucas Steyer in the previous round by +21 (21-10 17-21 21-10 4-1). This was going to be a challenge, youth vs experience. Stahl won table tennis with a good lead, 21-12, before Davidson stormed ahead in badminton, taking it 21-5. He then managed to win a crucial squash game 23-21, which could’ve gone either way. He finished the match in tennis taking it 13-10 with an overall score of +12 (12-21 21-5 23-21 13-10). His semi-final opponent will be René Lindberg who defeated Anthony Duthuillé +26 (21-12 21-12 21-3) and Michał Kurek +25 (21-18 21-7 21-13).
On the other side of the draw, top seed Sylvain Ternon got through to the semi-finals quite comfortably, battling past Christian Schaefer +30 (21-12 21-3 16-13) and Thomas Cavé +28 (21-18 21-1 21-16). His semi-final opponent is Dutch no 1 Koen Hageraats, who beat Matěj Volf +37 (21-8 21-17 21-1) and had to battle past Damien Andre in a close encounter. The overall score was +9 (21-4 12-21 21-15 8-13). This semi-final will be livestreamed on our Facebook page.
Pauline Cavé looking strong
Pauline Cavé is looking like a strong contender to win her second IWT title in her short career. She beat top seed Kirsten Kaptein +30 (21-17 21-9 21-7) and got the better of fellow French player Haurant beating her +20 (21-8 9-21 21-8 8-2). She then went on to defeat no 2 seed Kilchenmann +22 (21-5 10-21 21-5 1-0) and is leading the group.
Fabienne Dony is currently second, after winning her first two matches against Haurant +19 (21-3 10-21 21-12 6-3) and she had to battle past Kilchenmann in a close encounter. The overall score was +9 (21-2 9-21 15-21 21-13). If she wins her match against fellow Dutch player Kaptein this morning she and Pauline Cavé will battle for the title.
