Canet and Rotar continue to impress at 1-Star event in Montpellier

The pool stage of the 1-Star World Tour event in Montpellier finished on Friday, thus determining the teams advancing directly to the quarterfinals and those due to contest the playoff round.

Djordje Klasnic and Lazar Kolaric of Serbia topped their pool after a comprehensive 21-19, 21-13 victory over Latvia’s Ardis Bedritis and Arturs Rinkevics. Portugal’s Hugo Campos and Joao Pedrosa achieved the same feat as well, following a walkover as their opponents Mathias Seiser and Moritz Fabian Kindl of Austria had to forfeit their match due to injury. 

In one of the most exciting matches of the day, Austrian qualifiers Maximilian Trummer and Felix Friedl moved straight on to the quarterfinals after upsetting local heroes and Montpellier 2020 silver medal winners Quincy Ayé and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat 21-16, 18-21, 15-12. The home favourites cancelled a match point for their opponents but the very determined Austrians prevailed in the end – so Ayé/Gauthier-Rat will re-start their campaign from the playoff round on Saturday.

French youngsters Artur Canet and Téo Rotar continue to impress at the Parc de la Rauze, as they secured a spot in the quarterfinals following a 2-1 victory over Nils Gunnar Ringøen and Svein Oddmund Solhaug of Norway (13-21, 21-18, 15-13).

Olivier Barthélémy and Liam Patte remain in contention for France as well after reaching the playoff round following their victory over Javier Huerta Pastor and Oscar Jimenez Gutierrez of Spain. On the other hand, Arnaud Loiseau and Tom Altwies, silver medallists earlier this summer in Leuven, lost to another Spanish team, qualifiers Javier Monfort Minaya and Pablo Perez Suarez.

The two Canadian teams competing in Montpellier are both out as well. However, Jake MacNeil and William Hoey put up a good fight before losing in three sets to Simon Hagenbuch and Leo Dillier of Switzerland.