European Championships | 21 Sep 2018
EKHOLM survived severe pressure from LOEUILLETTE
Photo: ITTF
LIEBHERR 2018 ITTF European Championships
Top seed in the women’s Singles event Sofia POLCANOVA of Austria booked her place in the Round of 16 at the LEBHERR 2018 ITTF European Championshi0ps i9n Alicante. In the round of 32 she overcame Irina CIOBANU of Romania in six games (6, -10, 7, -8, 7, 7).
However, CIOBANU’s compatriot Daniela MONTEIRO DODEAN is still very much in game. She overcame YU Fu of Portugal (10:12, 11:4, 11:4, 12:14, 7:11, 9:11).
“Last time we met, I beat her but it was very difficult match at the European Championships in Luxembourg. It was 2:2 and 9:6 for her. It did not get any easier this time. On top of all, we were both struggling because umpires’ strange decisions. They were taking points from both of us. At some point of game, I said, ‘please let us play”, said Daniela. “FU has very strong service, quality forehand top spin and she gave me hard time.”
Speaking about hard times, Matilda EKHOLM of Sweden was stretched to full distance against France’s Stephanie LOEUILLETTE (9, -10, -10, -10, 10, 7, 6) before she prevailed. In the same position was Aneta KUCEROVA of Czech Republic in the match against Izabela LUPULESKU of Serbia (-5, -10, 5, 8, 7, -5, -9).
“After I had won two opening games I thought it will be easy…and in split seconds it was 2:2. In the seventh game I was 6:8 down before her coach called for time out. I do not know why he did it, but it helped me. After that I leveled and win,” said KUCEROVA.
Nina MITTELHAM of Germany overcame Szandra PERGEL of Hungary (11:7, 11:9, 11:4, 11:7).
“I managed to control the match with the very good service, so PERGEL did not have many options,” said MITTELHAM.
Polina MIKHAILOVA of Russia was two games to one in reverse before she leveled to beat Tin Tin HO of England (14:12, 6:11, 7:11, 11:4, 15:13, 11:8).
“In the opening games HO played extraordinary good. She stretched me to the limits in order to beat her. We played many times before, recently in Linz and still I was surprised by her game,” said MIKHAILOVA.
At the bottom of the draw, no. two seed LI Jie of Netherlands easily prevailed against ZHANG Xuan of Spain (5, 4, 5, 7).
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