The quarterfinals of the Under 19 Boys event at the ORLEN European Championships in Gliwice brought great drama that ended with France and Germany booking their places in the penultimate stage. Belgium narrowly missed replicating their miraculous recovery from the Round of 16 against the Netherlands last night. In a fierce battle against Germany which resulted in four out of five matches being resolved in decisive games Tom SCHWEIGER Andre BERTELSMEIER and Matthias DANZER secured the medal. SCHWEIGER and BERTELSMEIER beat Louis LAFFINEUR and Tom CLOSSET to give Germany a dream start. They needed five games each but eventually prevailed. Alessi MASSART turned the course of the match by beating DANZER and LAFFINEUR prevailed against BERTELSMEIER before we moved to the decisive match between SCHWEIGER and CLOSSET.
“My win over Louis in the opening match was a turning point. After BERTELSMEIER’s win we were close and I think our third player Matthias had a good chance. Unfortunately he lost by a narrow margin. It lasted longer but eventually our dream came true and we have a medal here ” said SCHWEIGER.
The closeness of the match was evident from the result of the decisive game in the decisive match: 9-10.
“I was very nervous because this game was for a medal but I forced myself to be active. In a few previous games I played defensively and blocked which is not my game.”
France faced the host nation and had the monumental task of halting Poland’s progress towards the medal podium. Mateusz ZALEWSKI and Milosz RADZIMSKI opened the match with victories over Flavien COTON and Thibault PORET but Alexis KOURACHI managed to change the course of the duel.
“We finished second in our group so we made our journey more difficult than it should have been. We didn’t play at the level we wanted in the beginning so now we had to take the harder path ” said PORET.
After an easy win in the Round of 16 against Bulgaria Poland proved to be a tougher challenge.
“REDZIMSKI is in outstanding shape here. It was hard to beat him. COTON was leading against ZALEWSKI 2-1 and he lost 2-3. Luckily Alexis managed to bring us back into the game. COTON needed five games to secure the decisive match for me. In the opening game against ZALEWSKI I was down 6-10 and won it; then I was down 2-7 and won again and after that I was sure the victory was mine. I had the heavy burden on my mind of our defeat against Poland three years ago in the semifinals. I didn’t want that to happen again ” explained PORET.
Romania showed no mercy against Croatia in their quarterfinal duel. Eduard IONESCU Darius MOVILEANU and Teodor ISTRATE overcame Leo VEKIC Borna PETEK and Leon BENKO in straight matches.
“We had to be very cautious. Team Croatia spent a week training in camp with us. We know each other very well and we couldn’t let our guard down for a single moment in the match. It looked like an easy win in straight matches but it was a very close fight ” said IONESCU.
ISTRATE added “The most important thing is our team spirit. We all support each other and cheer for each point. Croatia is very similar and that’s why it was difficult.”
Czechia overcame Italy as Simon BELIK Ondrej KVETON and Stepan BRHEL needed only three matches to seal the victory against Giacomo ALLEGRANZA Federico VALLINO and Daniele SPAGNOLO.
Karel KARÁSEK coach of Czechia’s junior boys team said “We knew that Italy was an opponent we could beat in the fight for a medal. But we were all silent; no one wanted to say it out loud that this chance should be used. The decisive moment of the match was the first singles game in which Šimon BĚLÍK turned it around from 0:2 to 3:2. He calmed down his teammates and I have to give him huge praise. But I also have to praise the other two players because they also put in a great performance.”
Ondřej KVĚTON stated “For me it was a huge advantage that Šimon BĚLÍK was able to win his match. Even so it was very nerve-wracking. In the end I was losing 0:7 in the fourth set reduced it to 6:7 and still lost. I was down 0:3 in the fifth set but somehow I managed to turn it around and win. The boys also put in a great performance so we deservedly progressed. It was a very tough match mentally because we knew we were the favorites and it was also about a medal. What more can I say?”
