by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
The no.4 seed, she underlined her increasing confidence against the defensive style of play by beating Honoka Hashimoto, the no.5 seed, in four straight games (11-9, 11-7, 12-10, 11-8) to reserve her place in the title deciding contest.
“It was first time I have played against her and I knew it was going to be challenging as she is one of Japan´s young stars. Even if it was a straight four-nil result, it was not so easy as it looked, there were many long rallies and I am happy I was able to keep a good level through the entire match.” Georgina Pota
Currently Geogina Pota plays in the German Bundesliga for TTC Berlin Eastside; where the coach is former Russian international Irina Palina, a defensive player of note who formed a very successful doubles partnership with Elena Timina, now the national coach for the Netherlands.
“At my club in Berlin and I have Irina Palina as the coach. She has helped me improve a lot against defence; so this helped me a lot in my preparation. I am very satisfied with my entire performance throughout the tournament as I was considering cancelling after having a bad last week at training. Here in Slovenia I faced some difficulties against Asian players´ service techniques and their attack on the first ball but happy I was able to manage.” Georgina Pota
Success against one Japanese defender, now for Georgina Pota another awaits; in the final she meets Hitomi Sato, the top seed.
In the opening match of the day, she accounted for Chinese Taipei’s Cheng Hsien-Tu, the no.23 seed (11-3, 11-6, 6-11, 11-7, 11-5).
