World champion Gatien

World champion Gatien crashes out of tourney

BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuter): World titleholder Jean-Philippe Gatien crashed out of the European championships on Saturday night, beaten in five games by little-known Estonian Igor Solopov.

Solopov, 32, produced probably the best table tennis of his life to down the Frenchman 22-20 18-21 21-19 17-21 21-13.

The Estonian thrilled the crowd with an astonishing series of recoveries from several metres behind the table and thoroughly deserved his place in the last 16.

Gatien, frustrated time and time again by Solopov's superb defense, made several unforced errors which contributed ultimately to his downfall.

For Gatien, it was a bitter disappointment following his role in helping France to the team title on Wednesday.

Ranked only 28th in Europe, Solopov's previous best listed achievements include reaching the mixed doubles semifinals in the 1982 Italian Open.

No luck

There was no luck about Saturday's success. Solopov had given advance warning with a three-game dissection of talented Englishman Matthew Syed earlier in the day and carried on in the same vein against Gatien.

Although the first four games were all closely fought, it was clear that patient Solopov was gaining in resolve while Gatien was too often in a hurry to finish a rally.

The Frenchman swiftly tumbled to 6-1 and then 13-4 down in the deciding game.

Gatien did his best to retrieve the situation but the nerve of the experienced Estonian held steady.

There were no alarms, however, for the other top men with Olympic champion Jan-Ove Waldner, European titleholder Joerg Rosskopf and world number one Jean-Michel Saive all claiming their berths in the last 16 with relative ease.

Waldner, in particular, looked impressive in his 21-10 21-14 21-14 defeat of Poland's Lucjan Blaszczyk.

But it was Saive's younger brother Philippe who caught the eye with arguably the most significant win of his career to date - a 21-13 21-15 13-21 21-18 triumph over talented Swede Peter Karlsson who had been seeded to reach the semifinals.

While Jean-Michel has been a major force in the sport for some time, Philippe is ranked only 30th in Europe and 59th in the world.

The brothers could now meet in Monday's semifinals but before then Jean-Michel has to face young Belarus Vladimir Samsonov whose attacking flair overpowered brilliant Greek Calin Creanga, Samsonov winning their third round match 21-11 21-11 15-21 21-16.

While Belgium celebrated the Saive brothers, host nation England lost two of their biggest names.

Desmond Douglas, making a comeback to the international scene at the age of 38, led 10th ranked European Ding Yi of Austria 2-0 in games.

Then he faltered as Ding's high-tossed service took its toll, the Chinese-born player winning 21-23 15-21 21-19 21-10 21-14.

Earlier, Douglas's compatriot Lisa Lomas, runner-up two years ago in the women's singles, lost a protracted third round match in straight games to Tatiana Kostromina of Belarus.

An hour later the women's champion, Bettine Vriesekoop of the Netherlands, was dethroned, losing in four games to promising Hungarian Krisztina Toth.

It was beginning to look good for top seed Otilia Badescu of Romania who reached the quarter-finals with a 21-12 21-12 21-12 fourth round success over Kostromina.