The first day of the Asia-Euro All Star Challenge 2013 took place in Qingdao on March 16th! Incredible scenes occrued as the match concluded with a 3-2 win to Europe. The biggest upset of the day was European legend Vladimir Samsonov as he defeated reigning Olympic and World Champion Zhang JIke in front of the host nation!

samsonovjike2013.jpg

Vladimir Samsonov - Photo by: Roscher

Tomorrow the matches will continue on day 2 (14h00 local time, 6:00 CET). Fantastic matches will take place including Jun Mizutani vs Marcos Freitas, Jiang Tianyui will take on Adrian Crisan, Chuang Chih Yuan will meet Vladimir Samsonov, Zhang Jike will play Dimitrij Ovtcharov and chopping sensations Joo Se Hyuk and Chen Weixing will meet.

Results

ASIA Vs EUROPE: 2-3 [1st Day]

Jun Mizutani - Chen Weixing 3-1 (8:11, 11:8, 16:14, 11:9)
Joo Se Hyuk - CRISAN Adrian 0-3 (6:11, 5:11, 10:12)
Zhang Jike - SAMSONOV Vladimir 2-3 (12:10, 11:13, 9:11, 12:10, 8:11)
Chuang Chih-Yuan - Dimitrij Ovtcharov 0-3 (13:15, 8:11, 8:11)
Jiang Tianyi - Marcos Freitas 3-2 (17:15, 9:11, 15:13, 10:12, 12:10)

Vladimir Samsonov vs Zhang Jike

In the opening set, Samsonov stormed into a 5-1 lead with Jike missing a smash at 4-1. Zhang Jike recovered the set to 10-10 however Vladi concluded the game 12-10.

In the second set, Samsonov led however Zhang recovered and won the battle on his trademark forehand to win in a close 13-11. The match now at 1-1.

Samsonov managed to keep the match flowing in his momentum and won the third set 11-9. In the fourth game of this epic affair it seemed the match was over with Samsonov in a 8-3 lead. However Jike came back, 9-4 to 9-8. European coach Jorg Rosskopf called a time out however it wasn't enough. Zhang Jike stole the set and leveled the match to 2 sets each.

In the fifth and final set, it was level at 5-5, the atmosphere was tense! Jike went into a 7-5 lead, although Vladi won the next 5 points and now had 3 match points. Jike recovered one, but this time it was Vladimir Samsonov who defeated the London 2012 Champion!

Congratulations to Europe on day 1! Be sure to visit our full discussion for live streams, results and lots more

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Source: ettu.org
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samsonov is a simple player who can actually defeat monsters in table tennis
he is really a good player against asian players
he could almost turn the score into a loveset when he played against xu xin
 
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