England’s Connor Green and Poland’s Mateusz Zalewski have reached the men’s doubles final at WTT Feeder Linz after winning their quarter-final and semi-final in straight games.
The fifth-seeded partnership will meet Croatia’s Ivor Ban and Hungary’s Csaba Andras in the final in the Austrian city. Green and Zalewski began their run with a five-game recovery against Luxembourg pair Mael Van Dessel and Tom Scholtes, but they have not dropped a game across their two subsequent matches.
The Polish Table Tennis Association reported that Green and Zalewski overcame Spain’s Rafael De Las Heras and Diego Lillo 3-0 in the quarter-finals, winning 11-6, 11-5, 12-10. They then beat Belarusian pairing Heorhi Kunats and Nikon Shutov 3-0 in the semi-finals, with scores of 11-5, 11-9, 11-8.
The scorelines supplied by the Polish association showed that the pair won nine of the 11 games they played on their route to the final. Their only dropped games came in the opening-round match against Van Dessel and Scholtes, before they completed two consecutive three-game victories against Spanish and Belarusian opponents.
That sequence has put Green within one match of a WTT Feeder men’s doubles title alongside Zalewski. The straight-game wins in the last eight and last four suggest the pair have found greater control as the draw has progressed, though the final will provide a fresh test against Ban and Andras.
Green and Zalewski recover before dominant finish
The pair’s route began in the last 16 against Van Dessel and Scholtes. The Polish association recorded a 3-2 victory for Green and Zalewski after they lost the second and third games and trailed 2-1 overall.
They opened with an 11-6 game, before the Luxembourg pair levelled the match 11-9 and moved ahead through another 11-9 score. Green and Zalewski responded emphatically, taking the final two games 11-5 and 11-6 to secure their quarter-final place.
The comeback gave the fifth seeds a demanding start to the knockout stages. The later results, however, meant they did not need a deciding game in either of their matches on Saturday, with their passage through the quarter-finals and semi-finals settled inside three games on both occasions.
Van Dessel was a familiar opponent for Green. Table Tennis England said Green had partnered the Luxembourg player to doubles bronze at the European Under-21 Championships in June. Their meeting in Linz therefore placed Green on the opposite side of the table from a recent doubles colleague, before his new partnership with Zalewski moved through the draw.
After that early test, the margins became clearer. Against De Las Heras and Lillo, Green and Zalewski won the first two games comfortably before closing out the third 12-10. The semi-final against Kunats and Shutov was also settled in three games, although the 11-9 second game and 11-8 third showed the Belarusian pair remained in contention before Green and Zalewski completed the win.
Final awaits against Ban and Andras
The Polish federation’s schedule listed Ban and Andras as the finalists awaiting Green and Zalewski. The match will decide the men’s doubles title at the Linz event, which the federation described as a WTT Feeder tournament.
Green has also been competing in mixed doubles in Linz with Tin-Tin Ho. Table Tennis England reported that the English pair beat Croatia’s Ivan Hencl and Dora Cosic 3-2 in their opening match after saving five match points. That result is separate from Green’s men’s doubles run, but it underlines the amount of doubles competition he has been managing at the tournament.
Table Tennis England reported that Green and Ho lost the opening game 11-4, levelled the match by taking the second 11-6 and then fell behind again after a 11-9 third game. They saved two match points while winning the fourth 12-10, before taking the deciding game 17-15 after saving a further three match points.
The mixed-doubles result did not form part of Green and Zalewski’s route to the men’s final. It did, however, come in the same Linz tournament and confirmed that Green had progressed in another doubles event while his fifth-seeded partnership with Zalewski moved through three rounds in the men’s draw.
For the men’s doubles finalists, however, the immediate focus is the partnership with Zalewski. Their opening escape and consecutive 3-0 victories have delivered a place in the title match, with Ban and Andras standing between them and the trophy.