The Day 2 of the European Team Championships in Zadar brought long and dramatic clashes in the Men’s Event. See all pictures here.
After a tense battle, the bronze medalists from Malmö, team Portugal, suffered a shock defeat at the hands of England. All three English players, Samuel WALKER, Tom JARVIS, and Paul DRINKHALL, posted victories, while Joao GERALDO won both his matches for Portugal.
“In the first match, I really took all my chances and played the way I needed to. In the second match, I was leading 1–0 and 2–1, 5–2… It was a good match,” said Tom JARVIS, who eventually lost his second encounter against GERALDO.
Sam WALKER shared his thoughts on the team’s goals:
“We’ve done it with the dream of medals. I mean, that would be great, but it’s not something easy. Of course, we believe we can do it, but it’s not something we’re particularly thinking about. We’re just trying to focus on each match.”
Experienced Paul DRINKHALL summarized:
“We know Portugal are a strong side. We came in as underdogs, but we all managed to get a win today, so it was a great team performance. We did the right things at the right time, which got us over the line. It’s a good performance.”
Tomorrow England will face Greece.
“I think that one is a 50–50 match, and tomorrow will be the same,” added JARVIS. “We’ve got to go in again and make sure things go our way.”
Drama also unfolded in the other first-round duel between Belgium and Poland, which eventually went in favor of Cédric NUYTINCK, Adrien RASSENFOSSE, and Martin ALLEGRO.
Milosz REDZIMSKI gave Poland a dream start by defeating NUYTINCK, but RASSENFOSSE leveled with a win over Maciej KUBIK. Once again, Marek BADOWSKI put Poland ahead, and REDZIMSKI looked on course to seal the victory for Poland when RASSENFOSSE recovered from a 1–2 deficit to push Belgium into a decisive fifth match. KUBIK and NUYTINCK fought fiercely and produced another tense battle before Belgium finally sealed the victory.
France were in furious mode. In under an hour, they swept Hungary to secure a place in the Round of 16.
Felix LEBRUN beat Csaba ANDRAS, Alexis LEBRUN prevailed against David SZANTOSI, and Simon GAUZY overcame Balazs LEI.
Felix LEBRUN said:“They played well, they had solid matches. I was playing in position two, against their number one, so we knew it wasn’t going to be easy for me. I’m happy to win and to take the match 3–0. We know him; he plays in the Bundesliga and already has some good results, so we knew he could play well. It really feels like now the team is clicking, everyone’s winning, and we’re finding our rhythm step by step. However, a 3–0 team win always feels good. Now we’ve got two days off, so we’ll train well and prepare for the second stage of the tournament after the Round of 16.”
Asked about how the team will use the rest days, he continued:
“We’ll talk about it after this, but I think we’ll do two training sessions tomorrow and maybe a physical session the next day. It depends on each player, everyone prepares in their own way so that we’re all ready for the next stage.”
On how they spend downtime during the tournament, he smiled:
“We just spend time together. We’ve got a great hotel, there’s a pool, the sea is right next to us, we go for walks… and we also brought the PlayStation, so we play together. It’s pretty classic; we just try to enjoy the breaks and spend time as a team.I t’s nice, honestly, and we enjoy being together. But of course, if someone wants to do their own thing, they can. It’s all about balance, we each have our space, but everyone’s happy to hang out together, so it’s easy.”
On his own form, Felix added: “Pretty good, I feel fine, everything’s going well. The conditions are great, the venue is amazing. I’ve felt good in practice so far. In matches, I can still play better and build up more rhythm. That’s the goal for the next two days of training. I made a few rushed decisions today that I’ll try to avoid next time. But we have time to prepare properly. It’s basically a second tournament starting from Thursday, so it’s going to be exciting.”
Asked about a minor injury:“At one point I felt something in my left arm. It’s nothing serious, just a small strain. It’s not bothering me much, but I put some ice on it afterward to reduce the inflammation. Nothing major.”
Simon GAUZY reflected on his own improvement:“Personally, my goal was to do better than yesterday. I lost against a strong player, but I wasn’t happy with how I handled the match, he caused me a lot of trouble. Today, I was more solid; I played a complete match, my service and receive game were much better, and I was more aggressive. I’m happy with that.”
Alexis LEBRUN added:“I’m also very happy with my performance today. I think I played well, I won 3–0, so I’m really pleased and looking forward to the rest of the tournament.”
Simon GAUZY continued:“Right now, I don’t think any of us feel too much pressure. The tournament is long, and we don’t want to be nervous too early. We just want to take it match by match. We have two days off now, a chance to recover and practice. The real pressure will start in the knockout stage, so we just want to be ready when it comes.”
Finally, Alexis LEBRUN looked ahead:“In my opinion, the strongest team is Germany. They have very strong players and have won so many titles at the European Championships. It’s always tough to face them, but I really hope we can meet them later in the tournament.”
It was back in 2021 when Slovenia’s trio of Darko JORGIC, Deni KOZUL, and Bojan TOKIĆ last played together, and four years since TOKIĆ had been away from the national team. His return marked an important turning point for his team at the European Team Championships in Zadar, as Slovenia ended Denmark’s winning streak.
The result carried extra weight, as the Slovenians had previously lost to Denmark both at the European Championships in Malmö and the World Championships in Busan.
“It feels amazing to be back in the national team,” said Bojan TOKIĆ. “Darko and I were together when Slovenia won the medal at the European Championships. The last time I played with the team was in 2021, when we lost to Korea in the quarterfinals at the World Championships.”
The match against Denmark started with Jonathan GROTH defeating Deni KOZUL, but then Darko JORGIC took control, claiming two wins overall, against Anders LIND and GROTH. Bojan TOKIĆ sovercame Martin Buch ANDERSEN.
“We are really happy that we finally beat Denmark after such a long time,” said JORGIC. “We lost to them twice before, so this victory is very important for us. I played really well against Lind, I was leading in the first game but lost it, then came back stronger and just focused on my game. That also gave me confidence for the match with Jonathan GROTH. Bojan also played a very good match.”
