Tournaments

08 Mar 2018

A day of hard fought contests, the goal to finish in first or second place in the group and thus advance to the next phase of proceedings; such was the situation on Thursday 8th March at the 2018 Belgosstrakh European Under 21 Championships.

In the Women’s Singles event Belgium’s Lisa Lung and Romania’s Andreea Dragoman, the respective top two seeds, duly ended the day unbeaten and thus in first place but amongst the leading names there were notable casualties.

by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager

The players to suffer the greatest hardship were Austria’s Karoline Mischek and Belgium’s Margo Degraef, both players who started the day as the highest rated in their respective groups.

Margo Degraef finished in third place, the group winner being the Czech Republic’s Marketa Sevcikova who ended the day unbeaten. Poland’s Julia Slazak reserved second place.

Not the best of days for Margo Degraef, it was even worse for Karoline Mischek; she ended the day without a win to her name. First place in the group went to Norway’s Rebecca Carlsen but it was close. She beat Ukraine’s Veronika Hud in four straight games (11-5, 11-8, 11-6, 11-9) but in seven games lost to the Czech Republic’s Katerina Cechova (11-8, 3-11, 8-11, 11-6, 13-11, 8-11, 11-9). However, in the opening match in the group, Veronika Hud had accounted for Katerina Cechova in six games (8-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-3, 11-4, 11-7).

Thus on games ratio it was first place for Rebecca Carlsen (7:4) followed by Katerina Cechova (6:7) and Veronika Hud (4:6).

Meanwhile, for Spain’s Zhang Xuan, the fifth highest listed on first phase duty, it was defeat but only one reverse and second place. Zhang Xuan lost to Slovakia’s Tatiana Kukulkova (7-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-9, 11-6), Veronica Mosconi was beaten by Croatia’s Andrea Pavlovic. Both Tatiana Kukulkova and Andrea Pavlovic remained unbeaten to top their groups.

Meanwhile, amongst the other leading names in action, Russia’s Valeria Shcherbatykh and Anastasia Kolish secured first places in their respective groups.

Belgosstrakh 2018 Europe Under 21 Andreea Dragoman Lisa Lung
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