In the Under 19 Girls’ Doubles Event the top seeds Hana ARAPOVIC of Croatia and Elena ZAHARIA of Romania had no problem advancing to the Round of 16 at the ORLEN European Youth Championships in Gliwice this morning.
ARAPOVIC and ZAHARIA won in straight games against Fanny DOUTAZ and Nina TULLII of Switzerland (8 7 6). On the other hand the Romanian/Croatian combination at the lower half of the draw Nicole ARLIA of Italy and Ioana SINGEORZAN of Romania faced a tough challenge against Sweden’s Nomin BAASAN and Leah TVEIT MUSKANTOR (5 -12 4 -12 5) before securing their place in the Round of 16.
Slovakia’s Eliska STULLEROVA and Ema CINCUROVA suffered defeat at the hands of Lithuania’s Laura ABARAVICIUTE and Marija MIKALAUSKYTE in another five-game clash (7 -11 8 -6 1).
In the Under 19 Boys’ event the top seeds also remained unbeaten. Darius MOVILEANU and Eduard IONESCU of Romania overcame Hungary’s Adam CSERI and CHEN YU Wei (2 7 5) while Thibault PORET and Hugo DESCHAMPS of France defeated Croatia’s Borna PETEK and Luka ZLATKOV (4 5 5).
Marcel BLASZCZYK and Alan KULCZYCKI created the biggest upset of the Round 32 by overcoming the no. 4 seeds. Seeded at position no. 26 the Polish pairings defeated Simon BELIK of Czechia and David SZANTOSI of Hungary (-9 9 3 10).
“I think we played really well today. We demonstrated that the seedings don’t necessarily dictate the outcome. We managed to defeat highly skilled players at the European level which I am extremely satisfied with. Our main advantages were our service and receive. Overall we played a strong and bold game ” said Alan KULCZYCKI.
“It was a fantastic performance. Alan and I had great cooperation during this game. From our perspective we focused on adding more spin to our plays rather than relying solely on power. This strategy proved to be a challenge for our opponents and worked in our favor ” said Marcel BLASZCZYK.
In the Round of 32 of the Under 15 Boys’ Event the top seeds advanced safely.
In Gliwice Julian RZIHAUSCHEK of Austria and Tiago ABIODUN of Portugal received a walkover while the second seeds Petr HODINA of Austria and Damian FLORO of Slovakia prevailed against the Netherlands’ pairing Ivan KAHN and Brent RONDE. However the Dutch pairing did not go down without a fight – they lost in five close games (-8 7 6 -10 8).
Other matches went according to expectations except for the duel between Lithuania’s Martin FRIZEL and Arnas SAPARIS who overcame Dorde CELIC and Niksa VESOVIC of Bosnia and Herzegovina (8 8 9).
In the same stage of the Under 15 Girls’ Doubles event it was a tough scenario for some favorites although the top seeds prevailed easily. Koharu ITAGAKi and Jesephina NEUMANN of Germany overcame Beatriz PINTO of Portugal and Alexandra DICU of Romania (7 5 -7 0) while in the bottom half of the draw Nina GUO ZHENG and Leana HOCHART of France beat Naomi COKER of England and Darcey TAYLOR of Wales (2 4 5).
Germany’s top pairings will now meet Belgium’s Lilly LAFFINER and Alicia WARRAND. The 20th seeds caused an upset by defeating the 11th seeds Emma MOLNAROVA of Slovakia and Anna HOLEJSOVSKA of Czechia (-9 5 -6 6 11).
Turkey’s Busra DEMIR and Aybike SIMSEK seeded at position no. 23 overcame Croatia’s Nikolina MILICEVIC and Victoria PUSTAJ seeded at position no. 14 (7 4 9).
