by Simon Daish

Suffering a narrow defeat to KTS Tarnobrzeg in the 1st leg of its semi-finals encounter, Dr. Casl pulled off a fine away win in the return leg to eliminate the Polish side from the competition.

Trailing to Han Ying by a two games deficit but Fu Yu recovered three games in a row to put the visitors ahead (9-11, 6-11, 1-9, 11-7, 11-7) before a straight games win for Zhou Xintong in her encounter with Elizabeta Samara (11-5, 11-4, 12-10) handed Dr. Casl a commanding lead.

The home side needed a quick response and Li Qian duly obliged with a positive outing against Li Jie (13-11, 11-3, 11-5) but a second win for Zhou Xintong, who beat Han Ying (11-6, 9-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-5), secured Dr. Casl’s place in the title showdown.

Victorious in front of the home crowd in the opening fixture, Bursa Buyuksehir Belediyespor sealed its spot in the final after holding off a comeback attempt from TTC Berlin Eastside in the 2nd leg as the 2016-2017 champions departed the proceedings.

Georgina Pota once again impressed for Berlin, beating Hu Melek (7-11, 11-7, 11-8, 8-11, 11-2) and Simay Kulakceken (11-9, 11-2, 11-4) with the latter player also losing out to Shiho Matsudaira (11-8, 11-9, 11-9).

However, despite three wins going in the home team’s favour the celebrations came from the Bursa camp as Yana Noskova’s clean sweep victory over Irina Palina (11-5, 11-8, 12-10) proved enough to see the Turkish side progress.

European Champions League: Results and Fixtures