There is only one round remaining in the Men’s Singles Event at the 2024 European Olympic Singles Qualification in Sarajevo before the first two players secure their place at the Olympic Games in Paris this summer. In tomorrow’s two Olympic ticket matches top-seeded Alvaro ROBLES of Spain will meet Milosz REDZIMSKI of Poland and Yang WANG of Slovakia will meet Panagiotis GIONIS of Greece.
ROBLES came to Sarajevo as a leading name in the seedings and so far he has justified his rankings by beating all four adversaries. In the main draw he prevailed against Dimitrije LEVAJAC of Serbia in straight games (11:9 11:9 11:8 11:8) earlier this morning before overcoming Mihai BOBOCICA 4:2 (9:11 11:7 7:11 11:4 11:2 12:10).
“I arrived in Sarajevo in good shape because I had so many tournaments in the past months. I was playing without a break for a while. Physically I am not at the very top at 100 percent but I have a very good rhythm of the game. That allowed me to beat very tough opponents in the Group and to reach the final match for the ticket ” explained ROBLES.
He will meet REDZIMSKI.
“Most recently we played two times this year. It was always very close. He is young but he already performs at the top level ” stated ROBLES.
In the other match of the round which determined the player who will reach the Olympic ticket match Milosz REDZIMSKI beat Eduard IONESCU of Romania. Only 17 years old he overcame his two-year-older adversary (6:11 11:9 11:7 11:3 12:10). Previously he beat Lubomir PISTEJ of Slovakia 4:3.
“I can say that PISTEJ is the player with a very strange and difficult style of play. On top of all it was my first time that I played against him. In the two opening games I was very aggressive and I was changing my service play every time. He did not manage to receive properly but as the match went by he became better and better especially on the receive and on the first ball ” said REDZIMSKI and continued: “Against IONESCU the results did not predict how close it was. I missed a training for a week because I was sick and after the opening game I was just excused but I forced myself to ignore it to move less but to add some power to my strokes. It worked just fine.”
The record between ROBLES and REDZIMSKI is 2:1 in favor of the experienced player.
“He beat me last time but I am not looking at it. If you want to go to the Olympics you have to beat good players.”
On the third day of play in Sarajevo WANG overcame Vladislav URSU of Moldova 4:1 before defeating Benedek OLAH of Finland in straight games (11:5 12:10 11:9 12:10).
“URSU played very well against players with a defensive style so it was very difficult for me. He had a lot of power in his forehand. He forced me to change tactics and attack him with the service which changed the course of the match ” said WANG.
The statistics against OLAH did not favor WANG.
“The last two times I lost against him. That’s why I had to adapt a new approach. I changed my service although it was hard. Twice it was 10:10 and it could have gone either way.”
Panagiotis GIONIS overcame Yaroslav ZHMUDENKO of Ukraine after seven grueling games (9:11 11:7 11:3 8:11 11:7 9:11 11:5). It was his third match of the day having previously defeated Niagol STOYANOV of Italy and Martin ALEGRO of Belgium both in straight games.
“It was good that I faced such a hard challenge against ZHMUDENKO because so far I won the matches too easily. I needed something difficult like this because tomorrow against WANG it will be very hard. This was good preparation for what’s to come next. When you win easy matches you can stumble at the first hurdle. However we both played the third match today and we were tired which also affected the game. He exceeded my expectations; we’ve played against each other so many times but he’s never been this good ” said GIONIS.
We will see tomorrow’s clash of two players with a defensive style of play.
“We’ve played many times before and we are very close. However he beat me in the qualifications in Qatar three years ago…but no one can predict how the match will go tomorrow. Two defenders it is going to be a long game we will be tired and all the cards are on the deck.”
