In the Women’s Doubles event at the European Under 21 Championships in Sarajevo the medal winners are already known. Tomorrow the semi finals will be played but this time without reigning champions Ece HARAC and Ozge YILMAZ of Turkiye who were halted by Ines MATOS and Matilde PINTO of Portugal.
Ece HARAC and Ozge YILMAZ won gold in two previous Championships but today Portugal’s combination proved too strong in the quarterfinal. MATOS and PINTO play together in Portugal’s league but they won their first medal at the European Championships.
“The key to our success was to understand what is the best for the partner. On each point we were thinking where to put the ball to be most comfortable for other player to play ” explained PINTO.
In the Round of 16 Portugal’s pairing halted Naomi PRANJOVIC of Germany and Luciana MITROFAN of Romania.
“We were 2:0 in advance but they recovered. It was most important that we maintained our focus in the fifth game ” said MATOS.
Two years ago Veronika MATIUNINA of Ukraine clinched the title at the Europe Top 10 and she also collected three silver medals at the European Youth Championships in Under 15 category in Singles Mixed Doubles and Team’s events. Today with Anastasiya DYMYTRENKO she aded another medal in Doubles. Anastasiya was fifth last year in Europeans but those two players was teamed up for a first time in Sarajevo for doubles.
In the quarterfinal they overcame Sophia KLEE of Germany and Anna HURSEY of Wales.
“We were only focused on our game and to fight for each ball. It was the same tactics we used for seeds no. two Hana ARAPOVIC and Elena ZAHARIA in previous round ” said MATIUNINA
DYMYTRENKO added:”We are so happy we won the medal together on our first event.”
Mia GRIESEL of Germany and Bianca MEI ROSU of Romania also secured the place at the medal rostrum after they overcame Anna BRZYSKA and Zuzanna WIELGOS of Poland. They will meet MATOS and PINTO.
Agathe Anne AVEZOU and Isa COK of France beat Nicole ARLIA of Italy and Ioana SINGEORZAN of Romania. Nicole clinched silver last year partnering Gaia MONFARDINI but this time French pairings won very close five games battle. Agathe Anne AVEZOU and Isa COK will play against Ukraine’s pairings.
