Patrick FRANZISKA in Istanbul showed mentality of a real champion

27/07/2010 - Patrick FRANZISKA clinched the gold in the Junior Boys Singles Event, bronze in Doubles and bronze in Teams Event at the 2010 ISTANBUL Metropolitan Municipality European Youth Championships. In the final of the singles he beat Pavel SIRUCEK of Czech Republic after he trailed 2:3. “That boy had to carry a lot of burden in Istanbul. It was so hard to play under the pressure of being favorite and top seed, leader of the team. He had a lot on his mind by dealing with the expectations from the outside and inside. And he did a great job. He proved that he has a wining mentality of real champion,” said coach Georg IMHOF.

Patrick had extremely hard run to the title. "He was 2:3 behind in the match against WISNIEWSKI of Poland, than in the quarterfinal in the match for the medal he was trailing 3:1 against NUYTINCK of Belgium, and then again he survived the real drama in the final.” On the opposite side SIRUCEK lost only one game before the final.

“SIRUCEK was the best player here. He is way above the others and his results proved that. However Franziska showed great quality, he kept his thoughts straight and win. Also in last two years he worked extremely on his physical condition. Now he is ready to survive 10 days tournament on an highest level. That was not the case before. He work very good in center near Frankfurt and had fantastic conditions to develop his game in Hanau. I hope soon he will be member of the senior team.”

- Maybe the only problem for FRANZISKA is that Germany has so many good players at this moment.
“We have BOLL, OVTCHAROV, SUSS BAUM but I know his time will come and he will find his place in that team.” Germany reached bronze in Teams Event.

We asked Coach IMHOF is he satisfied with the performance of his players. “FRANZISKA is leader of the team, and when he struggled at the start it affected the performance of other players. They depend on him. So now we have to work on their mental stability to avoid such situations.” Coach IMHOF pointed on very talented Generation of German cadets. “QIU Dang and Kilian ORT have great potential. They still go to school, but from the moment when and if they recognize the table tennis as their profession they will make very good results.”

- What about other players from Europe?
“Poland’s DYJAS played good here as well as his compatriot Patryk ZATOWKA. They improved their game very much. France depended to much on Simon GAUZY and he was overloaded like Patrick. However, most of the time we were focused on our players “.

- Next step for FRANZISKA is World Junior Championships.
“We have to decide what we will do. Should we focus him on singles, teams, or both events which will be extremely difficult.”

(by Milica NIKOLIC, EWT)

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Photo: German Patrick FRANZISKA (Photo Denis Adar)

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