They were five, but the Mulhousien Arnaud Merklé is the only one to have escaped the carnage which decimated the Alsatian contingent at the Belgian Open (International Series) Thursday in Louvain. And he will obviously be the only one in the running this Friday in the quarters.
After a quiet start in 16es against the Taiwanese Wang Po-Wei (21-15, 21-5), the Red Star player, now at the gates of the world Top 50 (51e ) and seeded n°2 in singles, had to work harder in 8es against the Japanese Koo Takahashi, 274th (21-13, 18-21, 21-12). The 2018 European junior champion ended up having to wear out, literally and figuratively, the Nippon who ended up on one leg. To reach the last four, he will have to oust another Taiwanese, Su Li Yang, from qualifying (202e ).
For his part, Alex Lanier (ASPTT Strasbourg), world junior n°1 and 117e senior, started with a bang against Ukrainian Danylo Bosniuk, 86e (21-15, 21-11), whom he had already beaten in Latvia in 2021. But the 2022 European junior champion succumbed in 8es against his predecessor on the continental list of winners in the category, the Fosséen Christo Popov, crowned in 2020, n°49 and seeded 1 (18-21, 15-21).
The other three Alsatians had stopped as soon as they entered 16es. The Strasbourgeoise Sharone Bauer and the Isséen Lucas Corvée fell narrowly in mixed against the Taiwanese Lu Ming Che and Chung Kan-Yu (19-21, 26-24, 19-21). However, they saved five match shuttlecocks in a second set which they snatched on their third set shuttlecock and almost did it again in the third. Trailing 9-2, they took the lead at 17-16 before losing on the wire.
The two Mulhousiens Kenji Lovang and Camille Pognante also disappeared in their respective doubles. The first, associated with Léo Rossi, fell in three sets against Canadians Adam Dong and Nyi Yakura (7-21, 21-15, 18-21). The second, in duet with Téa Margueritte, suffered the law of the Germans Leona Michalski and Franziska Volkmann (14-21, 17-21).
