25 May 2018

Experiencing defeat in their opening round contest against the Netherlands in late March, now Croatia has registered its first win in the qualification event for the 2019 ITTF-European Team Championships Women's Team competition.

by Simon Daish

Travelling to the Italian city of Bolzano for an away fixture, all three members of the Croatian line-up contributed a win with Petra Patek’s straight games success over Giorgia Piccolin (11-9, 11-9, 11-6) sealing a 2-3 victory for the visitors.

Scenes of celebration for the Croatian team on its travels and the theme was constant throughout the round as no side in Group A competing at home proved able to avoid defeat.

In Loja, Granada spectators witnessed a setback for hosts Spain with a brace of wins from Hana Matelova against Galia Dvorak (7-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-3) and Mario Xiao (11-5, 11-7, 11-8) helping the Czech Republic to a 1-3 triumph while a standout performance from Fu Yu produced a similar outcome for Portugal in its tie with Switzerland.

Team Ukraine’s qualification credentials are looking healthy after the squad of Ganna Gaponova, Margaryta Pesotska and Solomiya Brateyko breezed to a comfortable away victory in Slovenia with Luxembourg also getting a win on the board at the expense of Azerbaijan. The other Group A tie saw Sweden earn a second consecutive win as opponents Belarus fell to a 0-3 loss.

Moving on to Group B Estonia put the disappointments of its opening qualification match behind them, beating Denmark by a noteworthy 3-0 score-line. Nicole Trosman guided Israel to an important win on its trip to Finland while the Slovak Republic, Bulgaria and Greece also came away from their respective matches with success stories.

Latest Qualification Results

General News Hana Matelova Fu Yu Petra Petek