European Championships | 21 Oct 2016

Sarah DE NUTTE and NI Xialian upset the favorites

2016 LIEBHERR ITTF European Championships

 

Top seeds in the Women’s Doubles Event at the 2016 LIEBHERR ITTF European Championships, Maria DOLGIKH and Polina MIKHAILOVA are out from the competition. They suffered by the hands of Sarah DE NUTTE and NI Xialian of Luxembourg (12-10, 6-11, 8-11, 8-11, 3-11). In Men’s Doubles Pavel PLATONOV and Vladimir SAMSONOV of Belarus also faced the defeat. Patrick FRANZISKA and Jonathan GROTH (Germany, Denmark) progressed to the quarterfinal (9:11, 12:14, 6:11, 4:11).

 

Host nation aces Dora MADARASZ and Szandra PERGEL overcame Romania’s partnership of Camelia IACOB and Bernadette SZOCS (4-11, 4-11, 13-11, 9-11, 12-10, 1-11).

 

“In the second game my thoughts drifted away a bit, but luckily Dora was very focused. Only what my coach could advise me at that point was to follow the tactics. That is exactly what I did and we won 11:1 in the last game,” said PERGEL.

 

No. two seeds SHAN Xiaona and Petrissa SOLJA are safely through after five games duel against Oceane GUISNEL and Stephanie LOEUILLETTE of France (5-11, 4-11, 12-10, 6-11, 13-15).

 

“We were to much confident after easily won opening games, so we lost our focus in the third. However we did not change the tactics and we had control in the fourth game. In the last French pairings played better on service and return and that caused a little problem for us,” said SOLJA.

 

Yana NOSKOVA and Yulia PROKHOROVA prevailed against Sara RAMIREZ and ZHANG Xuan of Spain (13-11, 11-13, 8-11, 7-11, 7-11).

 

“We struggled with the new balls. We are not adjust to them yet,” admitted NOSKOVA.

 

Top Seeds in Men’s Doubles Event Stefan FEGERL and Joao MONTEIRO of Portugal booked their quarterfinal place after the victory over Tamas LAKATOS and Adam SZUDi of Hungary (12-10, 12-14, 11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 12-10), Panagiotis GIONIS of Greece and WANG Yang of Slovakia joined them. They beat Tristan FLORE FRA and Emmanuel LEBESSON of France (10-12, 11-9, 9-11, 13-11, 11-7, 12-10).

 

“French boys are playing together very well; it was hard match, but we succeeded. We managed to control them,” said GIONIS.

 

Jakub DYJAS and Daniel GORAK of Poland beat Paul DRINKHALL and Liam PITCHFORD of England (11-9, 3-11, 11-6, 5-11, 5-11, 3-11).

 

“In three opening games it was like a roller-coaster. It was very tough. They forced us to change the tactics because we were getting nowhere,” said DYJAS.