Tournaments

02 Feb 2019

An opportunity to make her mark, the host nation’s Rachel Moret came within a whisker of causing a major upset as play commenced in the women's event at the CCB 2019 Europe Top 16 tournament in the Swiss city of Montreux on Saturday 2nd February.

The no.16 seed, she experienced defeat by the very narrowest of seven game margins at the hands of Austria’s Sofia Polcanova, the top seed (7-11, 4-11, 11-6, 15-13, 11-6, 11-6, 11-13, 12-10).

by Ian Marshall, Editor

Defeat but much different to one year ago when, also in Montreux, they had met in the opening round; on that occasion, Sofia Polcanova had prevailed in five games (11-6, 11-4, 11-8, 12-14, 11-6).

“I do not want it to sound like an excuse, because Rachel played very well but I am coming back from an injury and I did not have a good feeling for the ball during the match. It was the first match in the event, I was not at all confident with my forehand. There was a little bit of everything in the match that caused it to be close.” Sofia Polcanova

Disappointment for Rachel Moret, it was the same for her colleague in the men’s event, Lionel Weber, likewise the no.16 seed but in rather different circumstances; he was beaten in straight games by Denmark’s Jonathan Groth, the no.6 seed (11-6, 11-5, 11-8, 11-7).

“I was well prepared. I watched Lionel’s match against Timo Boll at last year’s European Championships on YouTube and I was aware how dangerous he is. Also here, last year, when he played against Dimitrij Ovtcharov, all the games were very close. I knew if I lost a focus for a second, he will take his chance.” Jonathan Groth

Sofia Polcanova now meets the winner of the contest between Germany’s Nina Mittelham and Sweden’s Matilda Ekholm; for Jonathan Groth it is either Ukraine’s Kou Lei or Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtxharov.

Europe Top 16 Sofia Polcanova Rachel Moret
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Day 2 - China Construction Bank 2019 ITTF-Europe Top 16 Cup