European Youth Championships | 15 Jul 2019

KULCZYCKI and WEGRZYN justified their rankings to clinch the title

Photo: Rémy Gros

2019 Stag European Youth Championships in Ostrava

In the final of the Junior Mixed Doubles Event, top seeds Samuel KULCZYCKI and Katarzyna WEGRZYN of Poland overcame no. two seeds Russia’s Lev KATSMAN and Elizabet ABRAAMIAN (6-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-9, 11-5) to clinch the title at the 2019 STAG European Youth Championships.

Lower ranked players had a better start.

“We got ourselves in problems. We were 2-1 in reverse, so we had to fight harder. The fourth game was crucial. After that we took the control over the match,” said Samuel KULCZYCKI.

In the semi final Samuel KULCZYCKI and Katarzyna WEGRZYN overcame Truls MOREGARD and Rebecca MUSKANTOR of Sweden in three games (11-6, 11-8, 11-9).

“It is very big success for us to beat the Swedish team with Truls MOREGARD, because he is very good player. I am very happy, that we won. We played our game and we were focused on ourselves, not them. After time-out in the last game they looked like they did not want to play at all, but we knew it was their tactics, so we focused on each ball, because we knew that when we lose the game, it could be big complication and the rest of the match would be very tough. We made two good points at the end and we won,” said Samuel KULCZYCKI.

Lev KATSMAN and Elizabet ABRAAMIAN prevailed in all-Russia’s duel against Artem TIKHONOV and Kristina KAZANTSEVA in another straight games encounter (11-7, 11-5, 11-6).

“We are happy, but we will stay calm, because we have to go step by step. We knew we have a strong team in mix and we could go very far in this tournament. We were playing against our friends from national team so it was even more difficult mentaly. But the friendship in semifinal goes away. Does not matter if on the other side of the table is your friend or your brother, when we play we always want to win,” said Lev KATSMAN.