World No. 12 Bernadette SZOCS defeated the second seed China’s CHEN Meng in the Round of 16 at the WTT Champions Frankfurt 2023. Romania’s star caused a major upset by beating the Olympic champion in a closely contested five-game match (4-11 11-8 13-11 5-11 12-10). With this victory SZOCS secured her spot in the WTT Finals.
“I am very proud that I managed to beat her once again. I wanted to prove to myself that it wasn’t just a ‘lucky’ match last time at the WTT Champions in Macao 2022; I did it again ” said Bernadette SZOCS.
Spaking of the her victory SZOCS added:
“I think the secret is that I believe in myself and always think positive . It is very important to be calm when you play a Chinese player because they are calm and they like to play many balls on table. I always need to find many different good tactics against them. If I just play one tactic they find it out too quickly. So well for today I prepared many tactics as I definitely wanted to beat her. My last matches against her I lost because I made some mistakes I did not want to make them again. So I practised a lot for the big match and make sure that I don’t make the same mistakes like last time.”
It seems that the Chinese superpower also remembers that match very well. It also seems that only Romanian players can rise to the challenge. SZOCS entered the arena as one of just two women outside of Asia to ever defeat CHEN the other being fellow Romanian player Elizabeta SAMARA.
After such an astonishing achievement the bar is set much higher.
“I’ve proven to myself not only that I can beat CHEN but also that I can win an Olympic medal. I don’t think that the level of my game is far from the Chinese stars. I feel I am close and I believe I can reach the top five in the world ” explained SZOCS.
Bernadette expressed great gratitude for the people who work with her especially Coach Seni IONUT.
“I am happy that I am surrounded by people who believe in me who help me and work with me. I am aware that I am not the easiest person to work with; I have a strong character and it takes a lot of patience. Despite that I have a coach who believes in me and helps me build my career both physically and mentally. He spends 7-8 hours with me each day at the venue ” said SZOCS.
