European Youth Championships | 17 Jul 2016

Tania PLAIN and Ekaterina ZIRONOVA clinched gold on their premiere

Cadet Girls Doubles Event

 

Tania PLAIN of Romania and Ekaterina ZIRONOVA of Russia clinched the crown in the Cadet Doubles Event at the European Youth Championships in Zagreb. On their way to the throne they created top rated upset. The pairings who teamed up just before the start of the tournament overcame top seeds Anastasia KOLISH and Kristina KAZANTSEVA of Russia.

 

Only one game went to favorites account.

 

“Our fighting spirit lead us to the victory. Even we do not realize what we did, but I hope we will play together in future too,” said PLAIN.

 

In semis, last year’s quarterfinalists KOLISH and KAZANTSEVA beat Zdena BLASKOVA of Czech Republic and Katarina STRAZAR of Slovenia in four games.

 

“We are playing eight years together and we are very confident in each other. The match was not very difficult; the biggest problem was that we did not warm up enough for the match. We had only 40 minutes of warm up training and it was not enough. That is why we had problems at the beginning,” said KAZANTSEVA.

 

In second match Tania PLAIN of Romania and Ekaterina ZIRONOVA of Russia beat Ozge YILMAZ and Ece HARAC of Turkey in another four games match.

 

“We are very proud we made it to the final, because we teamed up just here. Turkish girls put us under pressure with their service game, we struggled with receive, but it ended well,” said PLAIN.

 

 

Final

Anastasia KOLISH, Kristina KAZANTSEVA (Russia) - Tania PLAIN (Romania), Ekaterina ZIRONOVA (Russia) 1:3 (5:11, 5:11, 11:9, 8:11)

 

Semi final

Anastasia KOLISH, Kristina KAZANTSEVA (Russia) - Zdena BLASKOVA (Czech Republic), Katarina STRAZAR (Slovenia) 3:1 (11:3, 9:11, 13:11, 11:6)

 

Ozge YILMAZ, Ece HARAC (Turkey) – Tania PLAIN (Romania), Ekaterina ZIRONOVA (Russia) 2:3 (11:6, 6:11, 4:11, 12:10, 3:11)