In the Second round of the Under 15 Girls Singles event we witnessed an early exit of the top-seeded player. Gaetane BLED of France was defeated by Polina PASHCHENKO of Ukraine in a closely contested match (13 10 8 -5 -4 7).
PASHCHENKO initially listed at position no. 87 in the seedings showed her defensive style of play that BLED struggled to counter.
Reflecting on her victory PASHCHENKO said “I was patient and avoided making easy mistakes. This is my first European Championships and also my first tournament outside Ukraine. I am incredibly happy to achieve this result.”
The round was filled with upsets as Mayra KONTOPOULOU of Greece also seeded at position no. 87 managed to overcome Lorena MORSCH of Germany who was seeded at position no. 13.
Expressing her delight KONTOPOULOU shared “This is my first time at the European Championships. Until now I had only won a bronze medal in Mixed Doubles and reached the quarterfinals in singles at the Balkan Championships. Against MORSCH I followed the advice from my coach and played the first spin on her backhand which helped me secure the win.”
Renata SHYPSHA of Spain ranked at position 70 managed to defeat the 17th seed Austria’s Celine Anubis PANHOLZER in a thrilling match (3 11 11 -8 -10 -4 7). SHYPSHA had a 0-3 deficit but she persevered through PANHOLZER’s spirited comeback.
She commented “In the first three games PANHOLZER couldn’t read my service game. Eventually she managed to figure it out and leveled the match. However I maintained my focus and played point by point not being afraid at the end.”
In other matches the second seed Josephina NEUMANN of Germany emerged victorious against Smilte MORKUNAITE of Lithuania (5 7 8 7). The third seed Nina GUO ZHENG of France overcame Busra DEMIR of Türkiye (8 8 6 -7 8) and the fourth seed Koharu ITAGAKI of Germany defeated Irina GIMENO FONT of Spain (7 5 8 7).
The top-seeded player in Under 15 Boys event Julian RZIHAUSCHEK of Austria was 1-3 in reverse against Bulgaria’s Miroslav SCHMIDT before he managed to recover to win the match.
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