Worksop table tennis star Sam Walker seals fine win to progress in German Open

Sam Walker enjoyed one of the best victories of his career at the German Open as he defeated world No 43 Kim Donghyun.
By The Newsroom
Published 28th Jan 2016, 12:44 BST
Updated 28th Jan 2016, 12:49 BST
Sam Walker sealeed a memorable win at the ITTF World Tour German Open in Berlin. Pic by ITTF: Remy Gros.Sam Walker sealeed a memorable win at the ITTF World Tour German Open in Berlin. Pic by ITTF: Remy Gros.
Sam Walker sealeed a memorable win at the ITTF World Tour German Open in Berlin. Pic by ITTF: Remy Gros.

The Worksop star raced into a 3-0 lead against his Korean opponent, who won the Bulgarian Open five months ago. Kim then fought back to close the gap to 3-2 but Walker was able to close out the match 4-2 (11-9, 11-4, 11-6, 12-14, 7-11, 11-6).

That put Walker through to the third preliminary round, but he was unable to repeat the feat against world No 66 Kirill Skachkov of Russia, going down 4-0 (11-9, 11-5, 11-9, 11-7).

The event is the strongest in the 20-year history of the ITTF World Tour as players battle for ranking points in the run-up to the Rio Olympics. Walker’s victory is likely to move him up from the career-high No 165 he currently occupies.

The European Olympics qualifying tournament takes place in Istanbul in April.

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