PRO TOURS

The European series of ITTF Pro Tour tournaments kicked off in Austria last week with the event held in the city of Weis. Gavin Rumgay represented Scotland at this event, playing in his first tournament as a member of the BTTF Development Squad.

Gavin, who was world ranked 321 going into this event, won his singles qualifying group for the first time at a Pro Tour with wins over Daniel Schaffer (WR 995) of Hungary and Zhong Ze Liu (207) of Singapore. This qualified Gavin for the preliminary rounds where he lost to Andrej Gacina (217) from Croatia.

Gavin beat Daniel Schaffer (Hun) 4-1: 11-4, 11-5, 11-5, 11-13, 11-4.

beat Zhong Ze Liu (Sin) 4-0: 11-8, 11-5, 11-8, 11-6.

lost Andrej Gacina (Hrv) 0-4: 5-11, 9-11, 9-11, 8-11.

The 4-0 win over Liu was the obvious highlight for Gavin in this tough competition and points to him being in good form as he prepares for ITTF Pro Tour events in Germany, 7-11 November and Sweden, 14-18 November. Gavin will be attempting in the next few months to attain a World ranking in the top 300, thus increasing his prospect of being selected for the European Olympic Qualification Tournament in Nantes in 2008.

(An indication of how difficult this task will be is shown by the fact that although Gavin increased his world ranking points after Austria Open his overall position remained the same at No.321)

Gavin later partnered Adam Robertson of Wales in the doubles as they secured a win against Pavel and Piotr Chmiel of Poland 3-0, before being beaten by the seeded pairing of Bojan Tokic (Svn) and Roko Tosic (Hrv) 6-11, 5-11, 5-11.

Kenny Lindsay has also been competing on the ITTF Pro Tour in recent months and following three appearances in events in China between June and September, Kenny played in the Austria and France Opens in the past weeks.

In the main singles qualifying groups in Weis,

Kenny lost to Jakub Perek (Pol) 0-4: 7-11, 10-12, 6-11, 7-11

lost to Yannick Vostes (Bel) 0-4: 7-11, 6-11, 6-11, 8-11.

U-21 lost to Lukas Dyden (Swe) 0-3: 3-11, 11-13, 6-11

In Toulouse,

Kenny lost to Gustavo Tsuboi (Bra) 2-4: 12-10, 11-6, 6-11, 7-11, 7-11, 2-11

lost to Peter Fazekas (Hun) 0-4: 5-11, 4-11, 6-11, 5-11

U21s lost to Mattiss Burgis (Lat) 1-3: 11-8, 7-11, 6-11, 2-11

lost Amalraj Anthony (Ind) 0-3: 7-11, 10-12, 8-11

beat Michael Samouillan (Fra) 3-0: 11-6, 11-8, 11-5

Although Kenny continued without a win in the Mens singles at these events he did maintain his sequence of winning a match in the Under 21s where he has been more competitive. Kenny also travels to Germany this week and results can be followed on the comprehensive result pages on ITTF website.