Tokyo, Japan, July 26, 2019 – Three teams from Wednesday’s men’s qualifier claimed pool titles here on Friday at the Tokyo Open along with top-seeded pairs from Norway and Brazil and the 2013 world champions from the Netherlands.
Protecting their position by winning their pools as expected on Friday were top-seeded Anders Mol/Christian Sorum of Norway and second-seeded Evandro Goncalves/Bruno Oscar Schmidt of Brazil. Mol and Sorum are currently the No. 1-ranked team in the world with Evandro a 2017 world champion with Andre Loyola.
Bruno captured the gold medals with Alison Cerutti at the 2015 World Championships and the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Also breaking through were 2013 world champion^s ninth-seeded Dutchmen Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen, who captured the bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Qualifying teams breaking through with unexpected pool titles were 15th-seeded Nils Ehlers/Lars Fluggen of Germany, 18th-seeded Saymon Barbosa/Gustavo “Guto” Carvalhaes of Brazil and 20th-seeded Quincy Aye/Arnaud Gauthier-Rat of France.
With pool play concluding on Friday for both genders, the men will play two lucky loser matches later in the day along with the first-round of elimination where Mol/Sorum and Evandro/Bruno will play the winners of the lucky loser matches in the evening.
The lucky loser schedule will feature three more teams that had to win qualifying matches on Wednesday to earn a spot in the Tokyo Open men’s main draw. Austrians and 24th-seeded Julian Horl/Tobias Winter play 19th-seeded Likejiang Ha/Jiaxin Wu of China in one lucky loser match on Friday with 14th-seeded Peng Gao/Yang Li of China challenging eighth-seeded Cherif Samba/Ahmed Tijan of Qatar in the second match.
The men’s schedule Saturday will feature the Tokyo Open quarter- and semifinal matches to set the lineup for Sunday’s medal matches where the winning team will share the $20,000 first-place prize along with collecting 800 points towards qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
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