STAG 2017 European Youth Championships
Seeded no. one in the Junior Boy’s Doubles Event Cristian PLETEA of Romania and Denis IVONIN of Russia will play in tomorrow’s semi final of the STAG 2017 European Youth Championships. In quarters they prevailed against Matteo MUTTI and Carlo ROSSI of Italy 3:0
In semis PLETEA and IVONIN will meet Istvan MOLNAR of Hungary and Andrei PUTUNTICA of Moldova. This combination overcame Jiri MARTINKO and Jan VALENTA of Czech Republic in four games.
“There are no words I can describe the feeling. It is our first European Championships that we play together and we reached the semis” said Andrei PUTUNTICA.
Patrik JUHASZ and Norbert NAGY of Hungary beat YANG Xinyu and WANG Chenxi of Azerbaijan after fierce battle in five games whilst Simon SODERLUND of Sweden and Cedric MEISSNER of Germany beat Rares SIPOS of Romania and Ioannis SGOUROPOULOS of Greece
“It is my first European Youth Championships. It is also first time that we are playing together. The fact that we have a medal is a great thing ” said Cedric MEISSNER.
SODERLUND added: “We changed the direction of the receive in each set. They failed to adjust their game. “
Hungarian pairings were forced to go full distance.
“It is always hard to play against players from China. It is the second time that we play together but it is first European Championships. Our opponents were very strong to the forehand. There were no pressure on us ” Patrik JUHASZ.
In Junior Girls doubles semi final Izabela LUPULESKU and Sabina SURJAN of Serbia will meet NING Jing and CHEN Xingtai of Azerbaijan. Serbia’s players prevailed against Lucie GAUTHIER and Nolwenn FORT of France 3:2.
“When we saw French girls beating top seeds Adina DIACONU and Andreea DRAGOMAN we knew wehad our chance. We were still under influence of defeat in singles where we both lost 3:4 but we kept going and fighting. We won two opening games; our adversaries recovered to level and even had 9:7 but we did not panicked. We stood on our path ” explained Izabela LUPULESKU.
Azerbaijan’s pairings beat Julia SLAZAK and Agata ZAKRZEWSKA of Poland 3:2. In the lower half of the draw Maria YOVKOVA of Bulgaria and Fanni HARASZTOVICH of Hungary overcame Leili MOSTAFAVI and Romane LE SCOUR of France 3:1.
“We were calm and active throughout the match. The second game we lost because of lack of focus. We blocked French forehand ” said Fanni HARASZTOVICH who paired with YOVKOVA for a first time.
Luisa SAGER and Jennie WOLF of Germany succeeded against Simay KULAKCEKEN of Turkey and Mihaela PLAEASU of Romania
