At the WTT Table Tennis Contender Slovenia, which started on Monday in Nova Gorica, Giannis Sgouropoulos, Giorgos Konstantinopoulos and Giorgos Stamatouros were eliminated in the men’s singles, encountering high obstacles. Sgouropoulos got off to a winning start and advanced to the second qualifying round only to be eliminated later by a strong Korean. Stamatouros fought very hard in the first qualifier against an experienced European, while Konstantinopoulos lost to a Japanese champion.
Panagiotis Gionis also competes in the Slovenian tournament. He also goes through the qualifiers, only his own game in the “32” (and after he had a bye in the “64”) is on Tuesday. Also, on Monday, Malamatenia Papadimitriou was disqualified from Italy’s Youth Contender. On the second day of competition in Lignano, she finished third in her group in the Under 19 girls category.
In Contender, the qualifiers no longer take place in groups, but in “knockout” tables. This, first of all, reduces the number of events for athletes and, from there, it makes it incredibly difficult to try to qualify for the main draw, especially for athletes who are not well placed in the world rankings, so they can theoretically expect better sweepstakes.
Our three internationals, who competed on Monday in Slovenia, are in that frame and, unfortunately, quick eliminations have come.
In the men’s singles, a qualifying board of “64” was created. Sgouropoulos, a four-time European junior champion, faced the left-handed Croatian Ivor Ban on Monday morning. He lost the first set, but then he found a very good rhythm and the solutions to prevail with a 3-1 set (8-11, 11-1, 11-7, 11-9).
In the second qualifying round Sgouropoulos (number 207 in the world ranking list) clearly had a more difficult task against Cho Daesong, who as number 92 in the world ranking was directly there. The Eleusinian champion easily lost the first two sets, was completely competitive in the third, but overall could not put much pressure on the Korean and was eliminated 3-0 sets (5-11, 4-11, 9-11).
In the same competition of the Slovenian WTT Contender, Stamatouros showed quality in another meeting with a well-known athlete from the “old continent”. He led with 2-1 sets against Slovakian Lubomir Pistey, who is number 153 in the world and has European doubles medals under his belt, until he “bent” with 3-2 sets (6-11, 11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 7-11).
G. Konstantinopoulos fought without anxiety for the best against the Japanese Jin Takuya and made a remarkable appearance, regardless of the final 3-0 set (8-11, 5-11, 8-11).
On the Greek side, Gionis (No. 102) continues in Nova Goritsa. In his return to the international open, he went unopposed in the second qualifying round, where he faced Alex Naumi. The Finn came out victorious with 3-2 sets in a close encounter with the Italian Mihai Bobocsika.
In Italy’s Youth Contender, held for the second day in Lignano, 18-year-old Malamatenia Papadimitriou was eliminated in the qualifying groups. She competed in the 16th of the Under 19 category, met two very remarkable athletes from outside Europe and was limited to third place.
First, she lost 3-0 sets to top seed Kong Ch Lam from Hong Kong (9-11, 2-11, 7-11). In the third round, she played the decisive match for the second privileged position with the Indian Subankrita Datta. He won the first set, but lost the next three (11-7, 10-12, 8-11, 9-11).
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