Saturday, September 1, 2012
London, England — With the table tennis event taking place in the ExCeL North Arena 1, Poland’s Piotr Grudzien beat Slovakia’s Richard Csejtey in Group A of the men’s singles Paralympics competition early yesterday by three sets to one. The first set lasted 28 minutes, ending in a win for Csejtey at 9–11; Grudzien came back to win the next three sets with scores of 12–10, 12–10, and 11–8. None of the four sets took over six minutes.
Grudzien was on his toes most of the match, moving around the table, touching the left-hand corner on his side of the net after every point. The pair had contrasting experiences in their first round matches; Grudzien lost in straight sets to Iraq’s Saeed Ali whereas Csejtey won all his sets against Ali.
Twenty-year old Grudzien came into the Games as the defending silver medalist aiming to take home another medal. Playing for ZSR Start Zielona Gora, Zielona Gora, his left arm is shorter than his right and his right leg shorter than his left.
Grudzien’s next scheduled match is the Men’s Team Class 6–8 First Round on Wednesday when Poland faces Ukraine.