Liebherr European Championships
Motivated by the fantastic crowd in the Salle Sportive Matropolitaine France showed no mercy in the match against Slovakia in the last round of the Group phase of the Men’s Team’s Event at the LIEBHERR European Championships.
France accounted for Slovakia and Spain to reach the quarterfinal where they will meet Poland. Second match in the group was easier than one against Spain; Slovakia failed to post single victory.
European vice-champion in singles from Hungary and quarterfinalists from the World Championships Simon GAUZY overcame Alexander VALUCH: “I feel good since the beginning of the week. I’m happy to play in France. My brother lives here. I feel good in Nantes. We did not underestimate our adversary. I had never played against VALUCH. I did not know him. I just knew he is notorious of good play against stronger players. It made an interesting match.”
European champion in Singles from 2016 Emmanuel LEBESSON overcame Lubomir PISTEJ: “We started the game perfectly. We knew we needed two points but we did not think about it. The three players were irreproachable. I am happy to play the quarter-finals. It will be a difficult match for the medal. Poland is not an easy team. They won two 3-2 matches in the group. They were at the top in important moments.”
Can AKKUZU beat WANG Yang: “It’s been a long time I had played against the player with the defensive style of play. I beat him and in front of a lot of spectators. It is very good. I’m happy for the team. This is the first match that I win with the France team. And I did it in France! “
Hour after Men’s match Salle Sportive Matropolitaine erupted again; this time for girls. After full five matches host nation patiently found the way through determined Luxembourg to reach the quarterfinal.
Laura GASNIER was stretched to full five games against Sarah DE NUTTE but she could not found the answer for experienced NI Xia Lian. NI made it two by beating Pauline CHASSELIN as well. Audrey ZARIF beat Tessy GONDERINGER.
In the fifth match Marie MIGOT overcame DE NUITE in five games. In decisive one she showed better nervous and brave heart.
“It was a delicate match. I knew this morning that I will be in the team tonight. It was my first match in the senior European Championship. I was under pressure. But the atmosphere in the venue reminded me of the championships of France 2019 where I was successful. Now we will have nothing to lose against Romania ” said MIGOT.
Austria also reach quarterfinal. They beat Denmark after five long matches. The backbone of Austria’s success was Robert GARDOS. He overcame Jonathan GROTH in the opening one and Anders LIND in decisive match.
“Even I am surprised that I beat GROTH in such style. I was ready for weeks I play very well but still… straight games win was not what I thought I could achieve ” said GARDOS.”Now we will meet Portugal. They are very strong team but with the performance that we showed here I am confident we have a chance.”
LIND prevailed against Daniel HABESOHN and Daniel also suffered against GROTH. Stefan FEGERL overcame Tobias RASMUSSEN.
Ukraine beat Austria in five matches thriller. Margaryta PESOTSKA needed five games to overcame LIU Jia but she failed to post the victory against Sofia POLCANOVA. Ganna GAPONOVA also failed to stop POLCANOVA whilst Tetyana BILENKO accounted for Amelie SOLJA.
In last duel GAPONOVA beat LIU Jia:”I am so happy and I must say surprised. I did not expect such good game from myself. In each moment even it was good or bad ball I did not lose my confidence. I felt perfect. As the game went on I was more and more sure. In the final stages of the duel the thought that I could win gave me extra power. We never beat Austria before. I am so happy that we finally did it and I am happy that I got the chance to be the player to seal this encounter ” said GAPONOVA.
