GERELL keep the Sweden’s flag high
In the Men’s Singles Event at the 2015 LIEBHERR ITTF European Championship the struggling of the favorites highlighted the second round. In an event that has been littered with surprises the trend of the lower ranked player beating the higher rated adversary continued.
In another full distance thriller Kirill SKACHKOV of Russia overcame Belarus Vladimir SAMSONOV (12:14 11:6 11:9 11:13 15:13 11:4).
“All the games concluded by narrow margin. It was very difficult match. My only chance was to force SAMSONOV to play fast. He was tired from playing very long tournament here so I made him to move a lot and imposed the rhythm which was to fast for him ” explained SKACHKOV.” My record against SAMSONOV is not very bad. This is my second win since I had beat him in Top 16. Before that he was better then me in three occasions.”
Portugal’s Joao MONTEIRO faced early departure. He was beaten by Russia’s Alexey LINENTSOV 4:2 (11:9 9:11 11:9 11:7 8:11 11:4).
“I am very happy with my performance in the Team’s Event. Before singles I had two days break and I used it for some practice ” said LIVENTSOV.
On their previous meeting last season MONTEIRO overcame LIVENTSOV in straight games.
“As all lefthanders he has a very dangerous service but my receive was at good level today. It gave me some advantage. In addition I was very motivated. I expected close and hard match; I was prepared for long fight. MONTEIRO missed few easy balls.”
LI Ahmet of Turkey overcame CHEN Weixing of Austria in five games (11:2 11:7 11:8 7:11 11:8).
“Always I focus on myself I tried to keep relaxed; also I concentrated of making sure I served well and followed with heavy top spin to the middle” said LI Ahmet. “From the backhand I played wide when possible to create angles.”
At the beginning of the Round two Sweden had six representatives in the field. The conclusion of the Round reduced their presence to one. Par GERELL recorded thrilling seven games victory over Germany’s Ricardo WALTER 4:3 (11:7 4:11 11:9 20:22 11:7 5:11 11:7).
“After I made advantage at two to one we played very long and close game. Eventually I lost it 20:22 and brought myself in very difficult position. If I had won it I will be in much confortable situation. Every set was close; it was very aggressive game and I had to keep it under control. The only way to succeed was to preventing him of doing the same; you have to keep him under constant pressure ” explained GERELL.
WALTER was disappointed: “I was always under pressure at my service. In the seventh game I came from 2:6 to 6:6. Then he made two more quick points with his service. That’s just annoying because I had to work for my each of my points very hard. “
In the match between Germany’s Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and Anton KALLBERG top seed prevailed in five games (11:3 6:11 11:4 11:6 11:7) in more Germany vs. Sweden encounters Ruwen FILUS overcame Jens LUNDQVIST 4:2 (11:9 11:4 7:11 10:12 11:2 11:5) whilst Patrick FRANZISKA succeeded against Mattias KARLSSON 4:0 (12:10 11:9 11:9 11:6); Kristian KARLSSON suffered by the hands of Portugal’s Tiago APOLONIA 4:2 (11:9 11:8 8:11 11:5 6:11 11:8); Robert GARDOS of Austria beat Jon PERSSON of Sweden 4:0 (11:9 11:6 11:8 12:10).
