The 2021 POMEGRANATE Europe Top 16 Cup in Thessaloniki on 18 and 19 September will bring few new names like FU Yu SHAO JIENI Ganna GAPONOVA and Aikaterini TOLIOU but Polina MIKHAILOVA from Russia will be seven appearances far from her premiere. Seeded at the position no. seven Polina played at her first Top 16 in Baku 2015.
“Top 16 is a very nice interesting and well organised tournament. Unfortunately my strongest memories from the event is the one from 2016 in Portugal’s Gondomar. I failed to pass the group just by points ratio. Once I was seeded no. 8 and got NI Xia Lian in the opening round. That is the worst option for me ” explained Polina.
After three events in Montreux 2021 POMEGRANATE Europe Top 16 Cup will be played for a first time in Greece.
“We will see how it is going to work for me. It is first time that we are playing in Greece and actually it is the first time that I am visiting Greece. Maybe this change will bring luck to my side ” said MIKHAILOVA laughing.
Polina played at the Tokyo Olympics this summer.
“I am disappointed with my result because I lost my first match at the tournament. However I can say that LIU Jia played a really good. She managed to recover from 0-2 in reverse to win the match.”
The vacation time Polina spent in Russia at the sea shore.
“It was just a short week. Now we are at the camp in the mountains for 12 days and then we will have about two weeks to prepare for Top 16 ” explained Polina MIKHAILOVA.
In the women’s event the other athletes who will participate are: Sofia POLCANOVA (Austria) Bernadette SZOCS (Romania) Britt EERLAND (Netherlands) Elizabeta SAMARA (Romania) Nina MITTELHAM (Germany) NI Xia Lian (Luxembourg) Polina MIKHAILOVA (Russia) Georgina POTA (Hungary) Hana MATELOVA (Czech Republic) Barbora BALAZOVA (Slovakia) YU Fu (Portugal) Yana NOSKOVA (Russia) SHAO Jieni (Portugal) Dora MADARASZ (Hungary) Ganna GAPONOVA (Ukraine) Aikaterini TOLIOU (Greece).
