by Simon Daish
Suffering defeat in all three of their previous Champions League finals, however, KTS Enea Siarka Tarnobrzeg were well placed heading into the 2nd leg of this year’s final having established a narrow, but important, 3-2 lead in the opening leg.
Making a dream start, visitors Tarnobrzeg sailed into a commanding 2-0 lead in the 2nd leg as Han Ying and Elizabeta Samara emerged victorious in their respective encounters with Doo Hoi Kem (11-5, 11-9, 11-7) and Fu Yu (11-3, 7-11, 12-10, 11-13, 11-4).
With home advantage on their side the Dr. Casl players weren’t willing to give up on the prospect of a second successive title with Ni Xia Lian and Doo Hoi Kem holding the upper hand in fixtures three and four against Li Qian (11-5, 11-6, 11-7) and Elizabeta Samara (2-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-8) to level the scores at 2-2.
Successful in the opening encounter of the evening and Han Ying was the player celebrating in the closing fixture of the match, condemning Fu Yu to her second straight games defeat (11-4, 11-8, 11-9) to complete a 3-2 victory for Tarnobrzeg and an aggregate win of 6-4 across the two legs.
Halted at the final hurdle two years ago but the 2018-2019 Women’s Champions League title belongs to KTS Enea Siarka Tarnobrzeg.