Just in the middle of the week, Panathinaikos competed in stage 1 of the women’s table tennis Champions League, marking the first participation from our country in the institution, and these days two female champions of the youth category have important obligations abroad.
Malamatenia Papadimitriou took part on September 9 and 10 in the Youth Star Contender of North Macedonia, one of the top tier youth tournaments of World Table Tennis. Chrissi Fotiadou lives another new and valuable experience, competing in Austria with the second team of Linz Frösberg in stage 1 of the Europe Cup.
In the powerful North Macedonia individual tournament, Papadimitriou played competitive table tennis on Saturday as well, but was eliminated in singles and doubles. In Linz, the local team made a positive start to their bid for qualification from the second group and Fotiadou contributed with her own individual victory.
With Yiannis Vlotinos in technical guidance and in this event, Papadimitriou competed on Saturday at the WTT Youth Star Contender of North Macedonia in singles and doubles for athletes up to 19 years old. In the eighth qualifying group of the singles, she checked her competitive status through strong matches, had a good presence, but was left off the board after a three-way draw.
With one win and two losses (4 points) she tied for the second privileged position with the Polish Slivka and the German Prankovich. From the matches against them, however, he had a negative coefficient (-1) with a 3-1 loss and a 3-2 win respectively and took the third place.
In the round of 16, Prankovic qualified, who had defeated Slivka with 3-0 sets and in all sets had a coefficient of +2 (5 for and 3 against).
The champion from Salamina (number 122 in the current U19 ranking list) started her games against the first favorite of the group, the outstanding French Pritika Pavant. Papadimitriou won the first set in overtime, in the end she won 3-1, but in general she pressured her opponent (15-13, 4-11, 4-11, 8-11).
In the second matchday of the groups, she faced the Polish Sofia Slivka, who is still a Korasis and competes in North Macedonia and in the age category up to 15 years. He is number 141 in the world at U19 and 27 in the corresponding U15 table. The Greek international did not start well, she had “ups and downs” in her performance and lost 3-1 sets (8-11, 6-11, 11-4, 9-11).
The case of qualification was not closed for the 18-year-old international, but in the third and final matchday she would have to defeat Naomi Prankovic with a 3-0 set. The German appears at number 30 in the world ranking and was drawn from the second group stage. Papadimitriou raised the performance standards, was very consistent and achieved an honorable victory with 3-2 sets. He was behind 1-2 and overturned the situation with marginal dominance in the fourth and fifth sets (6-11, 11-6, 10-12, 12-10, 11-9).
The qualification positions, however, were decided after the lost first set. At that point, Prankovic ensured that she would have a positive coefficient in the tie and that she would follow Pavad in the knockouts.
At the “Sport Center Boris Trajkovski” in North Macedonia, the Greek junior singles champion competed later on Saturday in the Under 19 doubles. She was partnered by this year’s European runner-up in the event, Ireland’s Sophie Earley. In the round of 16, they were completely competitive against the Croatians Hana Arapovic/Dora Kosic, until they were eliminated in the details with 3-2 sets (11-6, 8-11, 8-11, 12-10, 8-11).
In the 2022-2023 Women’s Europe Cup, Leeds Frosberg 2 (the club where Papadimitriou is also playing in its first team) hosts the matches of its own group (the B) on the two days of 09/10 and 11/09. It had been drawn with the French Saint-Pierrez, the Italian Muravera and the Belgian Antwerp.
The first two teams advance to stage 2 and Leeds took the first step at noon on Saturday, a development that is also an honor for Fotiadou. The team defeated Saint-Pierrez 3-1, took their first two points and are “chasing” the best in their next two matches against Mouravella and Antwerp.
Playing at No. 3 in the team, the Greek Junior Women’s Singles champion from Florina gave Leeds the lead, defeating Arina Roussel 3-1 sets (11-13, 11-7, 11-4, 11-6). It was her first win in her “maiden” year in a foreign club. Her teammates are the Croatian Andrea Pavlovic, who achieved two individual victories, and the Austrian Anastasia Ranjionava. In the other match of the first round, Muravera beat Antwerp 3-2.
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