Loutraki Corinthos alongside the Hellenic Table Tennis Federation eagerly welcomes talents from Europe for the second time in six months. Starting today until Sunday April 7th they will once again host the 2nd European Youth tournament which marks the 3rd event in this year’s European Union calendar. They are bringing together 68 boys and girls up to 15 years old from 8 countries and aspire to achieve an overall very good result.
Already it is encouraging to note the significantly increased number of participants both athletes and countries compared to the 1st Greek Open. Consequently this year’s tournament will be held in the large venue with last year’s hall serving as the warm-up room. The gre78.tv channel on YouTube will produce the broadcasts with two live streams daily one on Table 1 for the ETTU TV platform and another on the gre78.tv channel. The program includes team singles and mixed doubles matches.
Apart from the host country representatives from England Romania Poland Belgium Croatia Serbia and Cyprus will participate. Among the participants are notable names in both categories which adds significance to the competitive tests for the 31 Greeks participating.
Seven tables have been placed in the hall for the matches. The team event which kicks off the schedule today at 9 am with the group stage will feature separate boys’ and girls’ teams unlike last year’s mixed teams format. Each team may consist of two male or female athletes in the lineup (corbillon system).
In the boys’ singles Under 15 the top seeds include Polish player Kacper PERKOWSKI Romanian player Alexandru POP Belgian player Maxime DEGIVE and Croatian player Deni VALE. In the boys’ Under 13 singles notable participants include Romania’s Alexandru POP and David TORO Greece’s Spiros FOUSEKIS and Poland’s Hubert KWIECINSKI.
In the girls’ Under 15 singles the top four favorites are Katarzyna RAJKOWSKA from Poland Andreea BAIASU from Romania Maja LAKOMA from Poland and Maja VANJO from Serbia. In the Under 13 girls’ singles: Lucja KOBOSZ and Natasza RUDOLF from Poland Romania’s Maya Roberta MADAR and Greece’s Afroditi SARIKAKI. In the boys’ and girls’ mixed doubles the top two favorites are Kacper PERKOWSKI/Maja LAKOMA and Jan MRUGALA/Katarzyna RAJKOWSKA from Poland.
In the boys’ and girls’ mixed doubles David TORO/Maya Roberta MADAR and Alexandru POP/Kariss Yasmin SERBAN from Romania are among the frontrunners.
