Croatian National Championships
Frane KOJIĆ and Mirela ĐURAK are the winners of the Croatian national championship that was held at the venue Sveti Martin na Muri. While ĐURAK clinched her first ever title in Singles KOJIĆ managed to defend his last year’s title from Varaždin.
“Which title do I prefer? Well this year’s” said Kojić only to change his mind a second later “on a second thought I don’t know. I am proud of both titles the one in Varaždin being my first and I like the second one from Sveti Martin na Muri because it is always more challenging to defend a title.”
KOJIĆ was the only right handed player who reached the semi-finals managing to win Roko TOŠIĆ in the finals 4:1 and Miho SIMOVIĆ and Ronald REĐEP snatching the bronze medal. Croatia’s number one player Andrej GAĆINA did not participate at the championship and last year’s finalist and this year’s European Under 21 champion Tomislav PUCAR withdrew from the championship before the quarterfinals due to illness.
Mirela ĐURAK had challenging matches starting from quarterfinals and managed to win the title by beating Dorina Srebrnjak with 4:2 in the finals.
“The entire tournament was very strenuous I had a tough draw since the quarterfinals. I would like to complement the organisation of the championship and give special thanks to Dr Časl and coach Arapović because without them I wouldn’t have been able to win this championship” said ĐURAK.
The bronze medal went to Klara CAKOL and Ivana MALOBABIĆ.
In the doubles category the gold medal went to Roko TOŠIĆ and Tomislav JAPEC who beat Vedran BAKAČ and Josip MUSTAPIĆ in the finals with 3:1. In the women’s doubles category Ivana MALOBABIĆ and Ida JAZBEC won Mirela ĐURAK and Mateja JEGER in the finals 3:1.
Men’s singles
Semifinal: Tošić – Simović 4:3 (10 -9 9 9 -9 -8 7) Ređep – Kojić 1:4 (-8 8 -6 -7 -8); final: Tošić – Kojić 1:4 (-7 8 -9 -8 -7)
Women’s singles
Cakol – Srebrnjak 0:4 (-10 -10 -5 -6) Malobabić – Đurak 3:4 (-10 7 -8 -8 8 1 1); final: Srebrnjak – Đurak 2:4 (-6 5 -8 6 -9 -10)
Men’s doubles
Semifinal: Tošić/Japec – F. i M. Runjić 3:0 (8 9 5) Bakač/Mustapić – L. i M. Martinek 3:0 (8 7 7); final: Tošić/Japec – Bakač/Mustapić 3:1 (8 8 -7 8)
Women’s doubles
Semifinal: Jeger/Đurak – Cakol/Srebrnjak 3:0 (9 10 10) Malobabić/Jazbec – Tubikanec/Petek 3:2 (6 -9 -10 9 2); final: Jeger/Đurak – Malobabić/Jazbec 1:3 (-1 -8 9 -8)
