Austria accounted for Belarus on their way to the final
After two heavy days and matches that lasted almost until early hours of next day against Russia and Portugal Austria received a little stroke of luck in semis. Yesterday after the match against reigning European Champions Robert GARDOS admitted that they wished for Belarus in the quarters but even Austrian could not dear to wish the team without Vladimir SAMSONOV in the semis. It was big surprise to see Belarus line up without the key players: Vladimir SAMSONOV and Evgueni CHTCHETININE.
SAMSONOV suffered from the pain in his foot. He was injured last night in the match against Poland. Without SAMSONOV CHTCHETININE could not make bigger difference so at least youngsters got the chance.
Robert GARDOS World’s no. 26 needed one game to worm up against non ranked Gleb SHAMRUK before he concluded the straight games match – (12:10 11:1 11:3).
Stefan FEGERL faced little bit of pressure against Pavel PLATONOV only in closing stages. He lost third game before he won the fourth one 14:12 – 3:1 (11:6 11:6 8:11 14:12).
“We were not at our best. It is hard to perform at top level all the time at such long tournament. I think that our coach QIAN Qianli helped us find the way to play technically the best even when our shape is not at 100 percent ” said FEGERL.
Aliaksandr KHANIN will collect few valuable points for the World Rankings after he seized the opportunity to play in the semis of the European Championships. On his premiere in Ekaterinburg being ranked at the position no. 375 in the World he overcame Daniel HABESOHN World’s no. 63 – 1:3 (8:11 11:7 11:13 7:11). KHANIN’s major success was this year’s bronze at the European Youth Championships in double and mixed double whilst two years earlier he collected bronze in singles and doubles.
“I played relaxed being thankful to get a chance to play at the European Championships. I got nothing to lose here ” admitted KHANIN.
In the final match of the day GARDOS overcame PLATONOV 3:0 (11:7 11:9 11:9).
Austria won last medal in Tema’s Event at the European Championships 2011 whilst in 2005 they won silver.
