National Champion Michael Tauber opened the International Table Tennis Federation's World Championship in Budapest on Sunday with a four-sets-to-one win over Bosnian opponent Armin Alicic 4-1 after falling behind. Tauber is scheduled to face Taipei's Wang-Wei Peng on Monday.
Omri Ben Ari's rival, Jordanian athlete Salameh Mahfouz, refused to play, allowing Ben Ari to advance to a scheduled Monday match against Chee Feng Leong of Malaysia, which does not recognize Israel or rules of international federations allowing Israelis to compete. Leong defeated Mahfouz in four games.