STAG 2017 European Youth Championships in Guimaraes
Whilst the top seeds still has some time off the Round of 128 already brought few upsets in the Junior Boys Singles Event at the STAG 2017 European Youth Championships in Guimaraes.
Jonathan THIMON of Sweden succeeded against Istvan MOLNAR of Hungary 4:3 (-4 13 -6 -10 9 10 12). THIMON is currently ranked at the position no 127 at European Junior rankings whilst Molnar is no. 29.
No. 23 Andreas DILLING of Denmark also suffered defeat by the hands of no.104 Jakub ZELINKA of Slovakia – 4:2 (9 7 7 -9 -6 9).
“At the first place I had to convince myself I could beat him. I had to believe and to built my self-confidence. I played more aggressive then him and my service game was better which allowed me to attack faster ” said ZELINKA.
In the Round of 64 of Junior Boys Doubles Event top seeds Cristian PLETEA of Romania and Denis IVONIN of Russia easily prevailed against Aleksa GACEV and Dimitrije LEVAJAC of Serbia (7 7 7). In the other half of the draw Rares SIPOS of Romania and Ioannis SGOUROPOULOS of Greece overcame Joan MASIP and Javier SORIA of Spain (13 6 8). Italy’s Antonino AMATO and Daniele PINTO overcame Cedric TSCHANZ and Pedro OSIRO of Switzerland after they were two games down (-9 -11 8 4 9).
“At the beginning despite we were very focused the pairings that supposed to be weaker took control of the match. It proved once again there are no favorites here. We did some mistakes on easy balls and we had to do something to return into the game. We cheered each other to bring the winning spirit back ” said PINTO. “We put more rotation on the first ball and we block the game of our adversaries and we came back.”
In cadet Boys Singles Event Edward WESSHAGEN of Sweden beat European no. 23 Owen CATHCART of Ireland in five games (6 6 12 -4 8) whilst Elias HARDMEIER of Switzerland overcame no. 35 Gerasimos CHATZILYGEROUDIS of Greece in full seven games (5 8 -12 -8 3 -6 8).
Tiago LI of Portugal overcame Erik HUZSVAR of Hungary (-10 7 4 0 9).
“I lost the opening game because I played too risky. After that I started to play more safe to control the game and I put more rotation to the ball” said LI.
