In the final of the Under 15 Girl’s Teams Event at the 2022 Dunav Osiguranje European Youth Championships Poland booked their place in the final. They will meet Romania in the match for gold tomorrow in Stark Arena in Belgrade.
Poland overcame Portugal on their way to the ultimate stage. Mariana SANTA COMBA overcame Zofia SLIWKA to give Portugal good start but Natalia BOGDANOWICZ beat Julia LEAL in straight games to level the match.
In the doubles Mariana SANTA COMBA and Julia LEAL lost to Zofia SLIWKA and Natalia BOGDANOWICZ. Mariana SANTA COMBA was on duty again in attempt to prolong the match to another duel. Natalia BOGDANOWICZ had different idea and after four games she sealed the match.
“I think that we proved to have stronger team. The battle was fierce. Portugal is very strong adversary ” said BOGDANOWICZ.
In the semi final Germany could not repeat the performance we saw at the same table from their compatriots Under 19 team but for Romania the outcome was the same – they reached the final. Alesia Sofia SFERLEA was forced to go full distance against Eireen KALAITZIDOU before she gave Romania the lead. Bianca MEI ROSU beat Josephina NEUMANN in less dramatic fashion. Romania had 2:0 lead after her straight games victory.
In the doubles Lorena MORSCH joined NEUMANN whilst Romania had SFERLEA and MEI ROSU again near the table. They secure the win.
“The match was much harder than the result predicts. We fought for each point and we did not want to give any chances to our adversaries ” said MEI ROSU.
In the quarterfinal Romania’s Alesia SFERLEA Bianca MEI ROSU overcame Ukraine’s Olha PONKO and Daria KOVALOVA in straight matches. Poland overcame Turkiye in four. Zofia SLIWKA and Natalia BOGDANOWICH accounted for Busra DEMIR and Aybuke Banu SIMSEK.
On their way to the medal rostrum Germany was stretched to full distance in the duel against Belgium. Eireen KALAITZIDOU won two games and doubles with Josephina NEUMANN. On the other side it was Lilou MASSARAT who scored for Belgium.
The clash between Portugal and Hungary went full distance as well. Portugal was the team who secured place at the medal rostrum.
“We were nerveus. I tried not to think about the medal I tried to be focused on my game ” said Mariana SANTA COMBA.
Mariana overcame Sophie BARCSAI in four games in opening match but she needed full five to beat Kendra MOLNAR. Hungarian doubles Kendra MOLNAR and Nora POLONYI added one point to their scoreboard and Molnar also prevailed against Julia LEAL.
