In the final of the Men’s Doubles Event at the 2021 GAZPROM European Under 21 Championships in Spa in front of their supporters Adrien RASSENFOSSE and Olav KOSOLOSKY will play against Csaba ANDRAS of Hungary and Ivor BAN of Croatia. In Women’s Doubles Sabina SURJAN and Tijana JOKIC of Serbia will meet Ozge YILMAZ and Ece HARAC of Turkey.
In semi final Belgium’s pairings RASSENFOSSE and KOSOLOSKY overcame Maciej KOLODZIEJCZYK of Austria and Vladislav URSU of Moldova (11:7 7:11 3:11 6:11).
“They surprised us in the opening game with their service and receive game but when we learned what to do it was our main strength against them. We turned it into our advantage ” explained KOSOLOSKY.
Belgium’s pairings play together for a six years but mainly at the International tournaments.
“We won Belgium open and three times we were in the quarterfinals of the European Youth Championships. Always so close but also against very tough draw with players like SIDORENKO and GREBNEV on the other side of the net ” explained RASSENFOSSE.
KOSOLOSKY added:”Now it is different. We had a tough draw here and few close matches but now we feel more complete. Our game matured.”
Lev KATSMAN and Maksim GREBNEV of Russia suffered by the hands of ANDRAS of Hungary and BAN in full distance duel (6:11 13:11 14:12 5:11 9:11).
“We lost third game buy narrowest of margins and it was close fight but we never lost our control. We were always at the top of the game ” explained ANDRAS.
BAN added: “We followed the advance of our coaches to be brave and to attack.”
Turkey’s pairings Ozge YILMAZ and Ece HARAC overcame Mariia TAILAKOVA and Elizabet ABRAAMIAN of Russia (8:11 11:6 6:11 7:11) in very impressive style.
“We were mentally very strong. They are very dangerous but today we were at the top of the game ” said Ece HARAC.
Turkish pairings playing very long time together.
“We have already four medals from the European Youth Championships there are all silver and bronze; we never clinched gold. I feel now is the right time for the title ” said HARAC.
On the opposite side of the table will be JOKIC and SURJAN. Serbian pairings beat Tatiana KUKULKOVA and Ema LABOSOVA of Slovakia in the semis (7:11 8:11 11:7 13:11 10:12).
“We had 2:0 but Slovakia’s girls managed to come back. I missed few spins and I lost the touch. I become insecure. Generally there were a lot of ups and downs. In the second game it was 6:1 for them but we recovered. Then they won two games in the row and had 10:8 two match balls. At that stage Sabina played two spins which left them completely stunned. Even I was stunned ” explained JOKIC laughing.”It is good that this happened otherwise I will be afraid to look Sabina in the eyes.”
