Australia men take on Venezuela this afternoon in a rematch of their group match that Australia won 3 – 1.

A slight line up change with Robbie Frank playing at number 2 instead of David Powell.

The first match saw Henzell against their number 2. Henzell looked out of sorts early to go down 2 – 0. The Venezuelan looking free flowing and Henzell edgy.

The fourth game went down to the wire. Henzell’s serve becoming effective as did his topspin, Henzell the 4th game 11 – 9.

The Venezuelan got off to a fly 3 – 1 in the fifth and looked full of energy. They turned at 5 – 3. Henzell trying to settle things down and the Venezuelan becoming agitated. Henzell caught up at 6 all with a returning error by the Venezuelan. The tide looked to be turning… Timeout Venezuela. The counter topspins that were flowing from the Venezuelans racket were not there any more.

Henzell up to 9 – 6 and a yellow card to the coach from Venezuela. Henzell misjudges a ball to give Venezuela the point. Recognising the indecision, Henzell takes a timeout.

An ace down the line by Venezuela. 8 – 9 the score. Another fast serve down the line and an error from Henzell 9 all. A big return by Venezuela draws an error and now Venezuela has match point. An great third ball attack by Henzell evens it up.

Henzell goes 11 – 10 with a good attack only to be evened up at 11 all. Then two strong points form Henzell with good topspin play followed by an effective tomahawk serve sees him take the vital first match.

Robbie now against their number 1.
Robbie looks comfortable returning short very well and keeping the Venezuelan number 1 away from the attack.

After a slow start Robbie played well again winning the longer rallies and still keeping him away from employing his strong topspins. The Venezuelan looked perplexed. Robbie keeping his topspins low upsetting his opponent’s timing. Robbie finds himself down 8 – 4 looking a little flat and making a few more errors. Venezuela the third game 11 – 4.

Robbie plays well in the fourth trailing early but gets his nose in front at 9 – 8. Venezuela calls a timeout. Robbie comes back to the table, playing some great short returns and takes the game 11 – 8 and the match 3 – 1 to give Australia a commanding 2 – 0 lead with the Korean cannon to come.

The cannon comes out firing making forehand topspins from all over the table.

At 7 – 5 the Venezuelan is call for a fault. The bench is unhappy. Then 2 more faults including at game point. The Venezuelan coach and bench go berserk. The coach calls over the umpire. After some discussion the umpire calls for the referee. The match is allowed to continue. At 2 – 1 another fault to the Venezuela. The Venezuelan spirit is broken. Nam takes the match 3 – 0 and Australia walk away with a 3 – 0 victory. Now playing for positions 49 – 52.

They take on the winners of Congo and Ecuador next.