In the Men’s Singles Event at the European Under 21 Championships in Skopje Belgium’s Louis LAFFINEUR created one of the biggest upsets by defeating the leading name in the event and securing a place in the Round of 16.
In the last match in group A in Stage two the 26th seed Louis LAFFINEUR overcame the number one seed Eduard IONESCU to book his place in the next stage. He recorded all three wins in the group.
“I feel good because it was my last match of the group and decided who will take the first place. It is good; now I will finish first. IONESCU is a good player; he is the champion of Europe in the U19 category. So that makes me especially happy to win this match and now focus on the next duels. I kept a lot of pressure on him throughout the match. However when I was losing in the 4th game I said to myself: ‘Okay I don’t care about the score. If I win then great; if I lose then I continue in the next game ‘” explained LAFFINEUR.
Belgium’s player continued “IONESCU was under so much pressure I don’t know why. We are young; sometimes it’s just like that. I entered the match really well; I won the first game and he was perhaps tense because he was a champion once and wants to win the title again.”
LAFFINEUR reminded us about his misfortunes with injuries.
“In the cadet category I was first in the European ranking and the world’s second. But then injuries came and I couldn’t continue playing in this category. However the most important is the senior category…”
Maciej KUBIK of Poland and Ivor BAN of Croatia Iulian CHIRITA of Romania and Simon BELIK of Czechia also secured passage to the next stage. Thibault PORET of France joined them after a long duel against one of the nicest surprises of the event Spain’s Daniel BERZOSA. Unfortunately the duel against the Frenchman was the one Daniel lost and he also suffered an injury in the midst of the match but we all hope he will recover for tomorrow’s challenges.
PORET said after the match “My backhand was good; I missed just a couple of shots in crucial moments which was great. In crucial moments I was okay. My choice in service made the difference in this tight match. I served very well in crucial moments. When the opponent asked for a medical timeout it did not influence my game. I focused on my game my tactics and in fact it was very good for me because I won the 3rd game. I do not feel pressure being first in the group. I will relax a little; I have a doubles match later on and I will be back to play that match. I try to play in the senior category to go up in the ranking and go in the top 100 in 2024.”
