Only months ago Lev KATSMAN and his teammates rewritten the history books by being the youngest ever team to reach the final of the European Team’s Championships and by doing so they become first ever team of Russia to clinch the silver. Bronze medal was the Russia’s top result before great performance of KATSMAN Vladimir SIDORENKO and Maxim GREBNEV in Cluj. All three players are on duty at the 2021 GAZPROM European Under 21 Championships in Spa this week.
Despite great success at the senior Championships and more recently in the Champions League last week KATSMAN was required to go through qualification stage of the Men’s Singles Event. He overcame Mattias MONGIUSTI of San Marino in the opening match then Matthew DAISH of England and Gabrielius CAMARA of Netherlands on his way to the main draw.
“It was a good start for me. Unfortunately MONGIUSTI had problem with the service game. The umpire did not allow his service so he had to change completely his game and that did my job even easier ” said KATSMAN who won all three matches in straight games.
Last week KATSMAN added few fantastic wins on his record whilst creating another peace of history. TTC Neu-Ulm reached the quarterfinal of the Champions League.
“I had a amazing performance last week. I had 5:1 record. I beat Panagiotis GIONIS CHUANG Chih-Yuan LIN Yun-Ju and also Jakub ZELINKA Jiri VRABLIK. I lost only one match and it was against Hugo CALDERANO. It is first time that we reached the quarters and we did it in fierce competition. We played in Poland at KS Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki’s soil and there were also Fakel Gazprom Orenburg and SF SKK El Nino Praha ” explained KATSMAN.
However in Spa he had to start from the basics.
“I am not thinking a lot about what happened. This is completely new tournament and a new challenge. I have to be focused on what is going on here in Spa. Maybe here I am under greater pressure. All the players are my age the win is here must to and it is far from easy with so many good players listed. I have to prove myself among the players of my own generation ” added KATSMAN.
