Top seeds in the Under 15 Girls Event at the European Youth Championships in Ostrava, Germany will face France in tomorrow’s final. Czechia and Italy were eliminated in the penultimate stage.
In the semifinals, Germany dealt a heavy blow to the home crowd by defeating the reigning champions Czechia in straight matches. Josephina NEUMANN and Koharu ITAGAKI prevailed against Simona HOLUBOVA and Hanka KODET.
“I was a little bit nervous because in the morning I didn’t play very well against Spain, so now I’m even happier that I played well in this match. ITAGAKI played the first match against HOLUBOVA and won quite easily. I played against KODET and she’s an incredible player. It’s been a long time, about two years, since I last played her. Our styles have changed a bit, she played more aggressively than she used to, and I had to be careful with that,” said NEUMANN.
Josephina was honest:
“We expected we might win, but not 3-0, so I’m really happy with the result. In doubles, we were stronger. We knew we play well together, so we believed in ourselves. As for the tactics for the final, we’ll probably talk about it tomorrow. We’re confident that our coach will prepare us well. Of course, there will be some pressure, it will be a really tough match against Frances but we have to stay focused and try to win,” explained NEUMANN.
The duel between France and Italy went the full distance. Lou-Anne BOCQUET won both of her matches, but Eva LAM could not match her teammate’s performance. LAM defeated Sofia EPISCOPO but lost to Manon LOTH.
