ITTF-European Championships Teams Stage 2
Men’s Event – First Round
The Second Stage of the ITTF-European Championships Teams is playing in five groups each in Men’s and Women’s Events. After two days of matches the best ranked two teams will booked their positions in the Final STage this September in France.
In National TV Studio in Bucharest Romania overcame Lithuania in the opening match. They did it in straight matches. European vice champion IONESCU overcame LESIV to give his team a dream start. SZOCS and PLETEA followed the winning path against STANKEVICIUS and SKUCAS.
Denmark faced no difficulties in the opening match against Switzerland in Roskilde. Jonathan GROTH beat Lars POSCH Andreas LIND recorded victory over Lionel WEBER whilst Tobias RASMUSSEN succeeded in the match against Dorian GIROD. Havirov hosted the match between Czech Republic and Ireland. Pavel SIRUCEK Lyubomir JANCARIK and Tomas POLANSKY easily prevailed against Alexander GILLEN Zak WILSON and Ryan FARREL 3:0 (9:0). In the same venue Hungary overcame Israel 3:0. Adam SZUDI Bence MAJAROS and Nandor ECSEKI prevailed against Omri BEN ARI Michael TAUBER and Aviv BEN ARI.
Unlike in previous matches there were no lack of drama in the encounter between Luxembourg and Bulgaria. At the beginning Eric GLOD beat Petyo Ivelinov KRASTEV in full five games so the close start gave good hint that we can expect the thrilling match. Stanislav GOLOVANOV proved too strong for Christian KILL and Teodor ALEXANDROV overcame Gilles MICHELY to give Bulgaria the lead. GLOD managed to equal the match and in five games KILL beat KRASTEV for the victory. In the same Group in Helsinki we saw another thriller. Turkey was stretched to full distance in their encounter against Finland. Olah BENEDEK recorded victories in both his matches against Talha YINGLER and Ibrahim GUNDUZ but Turkey proved they had a stronger team. GUNDUZ beat Alex NAUMI Batuhan ULUCAK prevailed against Miihha O CONNOR and YINGLER beat NAUMI.
In Tallinn Italy overcame host nation. BOBOCICA beat LUSHIN in four games STOYANOV overcame SMIRNOV whilst MUTTI beat STROGOV in straight games. In the same Group of four England overcame Ukraine in very difficult match. Paul DRINKHALL needed five games to overcame Yevhen PRYSHCEPA and then Liam PITCHFORD lost his match against Victor YEFIMOV by same margin. Samuel WALKER beat Yaroslav ZMUDENKO in another full distance match but PITCHFORD suffered another defeat. This time by the hands of PRYSHCEPA 2:3. In the decisive match DRINKHALL managed to seal the duel in favor of England.
Women’s Event – First Round
In Istanbul Russia showed no mercy against Lithuania – 3:0. Polina MIHAILOVA Olga VOROBEVA and Yana NOSKOVA easily prevail against Auguste MALEIKAITE Kornelija RILISKYTE and Ugne BASKUTYTE. Only Yana was forced to go full distance.
In Group 2 Spain prevailed against Belgium. Maria XIAO Galia DVORAK and ZHANG Xuan overcame Margo DEGRAEF Lisa LUNG and Nathalie MARCHETTI. Only Maria XIAO faced pressure in the match against DEGRAEF in the opening match.
Italy had a good morning session in both Events. Following the victory of Men’s team in Estonia Women overcame Estonia in Belgrade. Deabora VIVARELI and TAN Wenling beat Reelica HANSON and Airi AVAMERi in straight games whilst Giorgia PICOLIN needed one more to beat Valeria PETROVA.
Greece beat Switzerland in five matches. Rachel MORET scored twice against Maria CHRISTOFORAKI and Aikaterini TOLIOU. Celine REUST lost against TOLIOU Konstantina PARIDI beat Rahel ASCHWANDEN and CHRISTOFORAKI overcame REUST.
In Bulgaria hosts overcame Slovenia. Maria YOVKOVA and Polina TRIFONOVA overcame Aleksandra VOVK and Katarina STRAZAR whilst Ana TOFANT recorded only victory for Slovenia’s team against Kalina HRISTOVA.
