São Paulo Focus - Day 1

Round 1 England v Japan 15:00

Not the easiest of opening matches for the England team, in the first match of the tournament they play the winners of the 1st World Mind Sports Bridge Championships in Beijing, Japan. The England team were beaten by Japan in the Quarter-Finals in Beijing last October, so will be keen to put the past behind them and start with a win.

Japan were very much the surprise package in Beijing, previously they had never even reached the knockout stages of any World Level Seniors Championship. So are they one hit wonders or the new force in Seniors bridge? We shall just have to wait and see.

Japan will be fielding two of the three pairs who played in Beijing.
They are
Makoto HIRATA & Yoshiyuki NAKAMURA
Akihiko YAMADA & Kyoko OHNO
Click on their names to bring up their international records.

Round 2 England v Egypt 18:30

Round 2 and another tough match for the England team. Egypt were another team that surprised everyone in Beijing. They eventually went out in the semi-final to the USA, but on the way had good wins over fancied teams France & Australia. They, like Japan had never previously reached the knockout stages of any World Level Seniors Championship. So I ask the same question as I did for Japan. Are they one hit wonders or a new force in Seniors bridge?

Egypt will be fielding the same team as the one that played in Beijing.

They are
Amr El ASKALANI & Marwan KHEDR
Mohsen Mohamed KAMEL & Wael WATTAR
Mohamed Shaker GHAMRAWY & Mohamed Yehia KHALIL
Click on their names to bring up their international records.

Round 3 England v India 21:20

An easier match, at least on paper, to finish with. India have no track record at all at Senior level and finished in a mid-table position in the qualifying rounds in Beijing. Only one player, Vinay Mohan Lal, survives from the Beijing team, the rest of the team are different. I'm not going to try to guess the partnerships but the team is
Ramavatar AGARWAL
S K IVENGAR
Vinay Mohan LAL
Dipak PODDAR
Ashok RUIA
R SRIDHAR
Click on their names to bring up their international records.