Liebherr European Championships
Sweden reached the quarterfinal of the LIEBHERR European Championships in Nantes after they beat Romania in the second round of the Group phase. Poland joined them after victory over Belgium whilst in Women’s Team’s Event Sweden lost to Poland who remained unbeaten and also reach the knock out stage. Portugal accounted for Russia.
Sweden needed three matches to finish the job that stated yesterday with the victory over Hungary and to reach the knock out phase. Unlike yesterday this time Kristian KARLSSON was in line up. He played at position no. three. Jon PERSSON and Mattias FALCK both were successful in their matches. PERSSON needed only three games to beat Ovidiu IONESCU whilst FALCK was stretched to full distance against Rares SIPOS.
“I had really close matches here. They were really hard to win. Today I played a bit better than yesterday against Hungary but for the next match I will have to focus more. Our next one will be against England and they are a really strong team ” said FALCK.
KARLSSON was forced to go full distance as well. He overcame PLETEA.
“Cristian came in superb shape in France. It was difficult to play against him. I am coming from injury so I am very pleased after this victory. Also I am looking forward our match against England. They are our friends and I am sure it will be good match to watch ” said KARLSSON.
Poland justified their rankings but they were under severe pressure against Belgium. Marek BADOWSKI played like he is on fire. He beat Cedric NUYTINCK and Florent LAMBIET. LAMBIET overcame Jakub DYJAS Samuel KULCZYCKI suffered against NUYTINCK. NUYTINCK also suffered against DYJAS
“It was great pressure on everyone. It is the last match in group but with only three teams in it is almost like knock out phase. This match was directly for quarters. During the whole game against LAMBIET I felt confident so the first two games were really good but then he improved his game and became better and better with each rally. I didn’t really know what I could do better because I already played the best I could. I asked my coach what I can do better to finally win the match. I just tried to focus more and fortunately I won the duel ” said BADOWSKI.
In Women’s Team’s Event Poland overcame Turkey yesterday and today they beat Sweden. Natalia PARTYKA however suffered in the opening match against Matilda EKHOLM.
“She is very difficult player to beat and she played really well. On the other side I did not take advantage of few leads I had. I won opening game had 10-8 in third in fourth I was again up…I was behind with little things ” said PARTYKA.
LI Qian was at the top of the game. She overcame Linda BERGSTROM and EKHOLM.
“I was very nervous before the match and Linda took advantage of that. She got the lead. She forced me to change the tactics and to attack more. Against EKHOLM I played better ” said European Singles Champion LI.
Natalia BAYOR overcame Christina KALLBERG: “Last time I played against her three years ago and it is really long time since she is very young player. That made me nervous but with little change of pace and tactics adjustment I succeeded.”
Portugal reached the quarters after thrilling five matches against Russia. After victories against Yana NOSKOVA and Polina MIKHAILOVA YU Fu was the instrumental of Portugal’s success.
“That was the crucial thing – to win both my matches. Luckily SHAO Jeni managed to finish the decisive one victoriously but it was very close. She did not crack under pressure and showed brave performance against NOSKOVA ” said YU FU.
SHAO lost her first match to Polina whilst Olga VOROBEVA overcame Leila OLIVEIRA.
