The opening day at the European Under 21 Championships in Cluj was packed with action. There were no lack of upsets in the Group Stages of both Men’s and Women’s Event. At the end of the day Poland Ukraine and Romania recorded very impressive wins.
In Group 1 Poland’s Zuzanna WIELGOS secured the top position after the five games win over the Ece HARAC of Turkiye who was top seed in the Group. Both players also succeeded against Slovenia’s Sara TOKIC.
In Group 2 Helga DARI of Hungary is at the top with three wins over Matilde PINTO of Italy Leah MUSKANTOR of Sweden and Kalina HRISTOVA of Bulgaria.
Romania’s Ioana SINGEORZAN justified her rankings by securing the top position in Group 3 where Tsvetelina GEORGIEVA of Bulgaria create the surprise. Bulgaria’s player received the wild card before she booked the place in the next stage.
Mia GRIESEL of Germany and Julie VAN HAUWAERT of Belgium emerged successfully in Group 4.
Another player who reached the next stage after coming to the Championships with wild card is Ukraine’s Anastasiya DYMYTRENKO. She lost one match against Jana VASENDOVA of Czech Republic but overcame Luciana MITROFAN of Romania and Agathe AVEZOU of France to book the top spot. AVEZOU is second in the group.
Anna WEGRZYN of Poland and Linda ZADEROVA of Czech Republic are safely through. Anna BRZYSKA of Poland and Zdena BLASKOVA of Czech Republic joined them as top two players in Group 7. Next in line are Rebecca MUSKANTOR of Sweden and Kornelija RILISKYTE of Lithuania Ines MATOS of Portugal and Gaia MONFARDINI of Italy. Bianca MEI ROSU of Romania and Eugenia SASTRE of Spain. Unlike the Bianca’s progress which was expected SASTRE created the upset after she beat Dasa SINKAROVA of Slovakia and Karlijn VAN LIEROP of Netherlands.
Matilda HANSSON of Sweden and Sophia KLEE of Germany booked top two places in their respective Group. They were joined by the fourth Polish representative who had success in the qualifications Katarzyna WEGRZYN. From Group 12 Isa COK of France is the second qualifier.
In top two Groups in men’s qualifications Romania’s Andrei ISTRATE and Eduard IONESCU showed no mercy on their way. ISTRATE beat David SZANTOSI of Hungary and Tom SCHWEIGER of Germany whilst IONESCU overcame Filip DELINCAK of Slovakia and Daniel BERZOSA of Spain.
Csaba ANDRAS of Hungary and Vladislav URSU of Moldova progressed to the next stage but it was URSU who recorded all three wins despite he was ranked only at the fourth position in the Group.
Ukraine’s Anton LIMONOV created the surprise by winning all three matches and emerged at the top of the Group 4. Alex NAUMI of Finland is second. Ukraine’s success is underlined with another Group winner Andrii GREBENIUK who recorded all three wins. Maciej KOLODZIEJCZYK of Poland is most successful player in the Group 6.
The qualifiers who secured the top positions in other groups are Andrea PUPPO of Italy and Barish MOULLET of Switzerland Carlo ROSSI of Italy and Borgar HAUG of Norway Milosz REDZIMSKI of Poland and Jan VALENTA of Czech Republic.
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