After such a wonderful opening day in Kobe, Thursday promised much for the U.S. team.  Sadly, it wasn’t really what we had hoped for.  Despite some battling performances from everyone, things didn’t quite go our way.

In the Men’s Singles, Tom Sawyer, Robbie Phillips, and Billy Squires were all in action at 11.30am.  It didn’t take Sawyer long to make his presence felt, and a convincing 4-0 victory (and an average of 102) over Russian Boris Koltsov gave us the perfect start.  Phillips soon followed suit with a six leg win against South Korea’s Hyun Joon Son.

Squire was next to finish, but couldn’t quite join his compatriots in the second round.  A great effort saw him dip out to Yoann Belchun (France) in a tensely-fought tie-breaker.  Joe Chaney was the last of the American quartet to take to the oche, but German Ricardo Pietreczko proved too strong, and took the W by 4 legs to 1.

With just Tom and Robbie left, American interest was maintained as the pair both made it through to the Top 32.  Sawyer beat Dane Lars Helsinghof 4-2, while Phillips grabbed a 4-3 win against Switzerland’s Stefan Bellmont.

In the Top 32, it was a straight fight between the U.S. and the Netherlands, with Sawyer meeting Chris Landman, and Phillips up against Willem Mandigers.  The Bostonian took Landman to a decider, but it was the Dutchman who progressed.  Mandigers then ended Robbie’s run in six legs.

Mandigers and Pietreczko both made it to the semis, while Landman lost one round earlier.  The final is between our good friend Jeff Smith (Canada) and Australian Raymond Smith.

In the Women’s Pairs, Cali West and Carole Herriott won their opener in some style, taking out Carole Frison and Laure Schweitzer (France) 4-0.  Paula Murphy and Lisa Ayers were perhaps at a slight disadvantage, having received a bye.  That left them to face Canada’s Patricia Farrell and Kim Bellay-Rousselle, who had beaten one of the South Korean teams in the first round.  After six legs, it was the Canadians who moved on.

Cali and Carole kept it going with another impressive 4-2 triumph, this time over Northern Ireland’s O’Neill and Service.  Then, it was time to face the Dutch again.  The 4-1 scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story, but Anca Zijlstra and Vanessa Zuidema advanced  to the quarter-final.

Zijlstra and Zuidema reached the semis where they lost to Ireland’s Robyn Byrne and Caroline Breen, who face Anastasia Dobromyslova and Marina Kononova in the final.  At T4, the Russians got the better of Finland’s Viinikainen and Rekinen.

In the Girls’ Singles, Iran’s Deniz Hashtbaran reached her second final of the week, where she will take on Ireland’s Katie Sheldon.  Bronze medalists are Turkey’s Emine Dursan and Layla Brussel (Netherlands).  The Dutch team of Justin van Tergouw and Wessel Nijman will contest the Boys’ Pairs final against Killian Heffernan and Keane Barry (Ireland).  Bronze medals go to Killin/Dodge (Australia) and Nakamura/Sueshige (Japan).

Tomorrow (Friday) sees the Women’s Singles, Men’s Pairs, and Youth Mixed Pairs.  These will be followed the stage finals of all pairs events.

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