Tonight 22/01, Enebon laid the groundwork for the qualification to the semi-finals of the 2022-2023 men’s table tennis Europe Cup and Giannis Sgouropoulos had his own big contribution. In Italy and for the first quarter-final against Top Spin Messina, the French club prevailed 3-2 with a reversal from 0-2 and the four-time European youth champion shaped the final score.
This was also his positive start to the official matches for the new year. He played two matches against the Muti brothers, losing to Matteo 3-2 and beating Leonardo 3-2 (where the 5th set, let’s remember, in the European Team Cups is now decided in favor of the athlete, who first reaches 6 points and not the classics 11). Next Wednesday 01/25, the rematch takes place in France and of course nothing has been decided yet. The Polish Bogoria of Panagiotis Gionis is also in the quarter-finals of the men’s Europe Cup, which has to face Bingoz from the same country on 28/01 and 10/02.
Enebon comes from the Champions League and with the 2nd place in its group had acquired the right to continue its European journey in the 8th round of the 2nd class of the inter-club competition. In Italy, it did not have the legendary Chuan Chi Yuan from Taipei at its disposal, but again it was the favorite against Messina, which had started its journey from stage 2 of the Europe Cup, entered the knockouts with the 2nd place from its group and in the round of 16 eliminated the Belgian Soca Hoboken in the “golden match” (from one victory with 3-1 both teams). In practice the hosts proved to be very strong, leading 2-0 and taking the 1st set of the next match, until the former French champions responded, showed character and won 3-2 after almost 3 hours. By the way, next Saturday 28/01 they start the 2nd round in the French league facing Rouen at home.
Sgouropoulos (number 204 in the current world ranking) was placed in the 2 position of his team and entered the table first. He faced the Italian Matteo Muti (No. 488) with whom he had been competing for years, who were in the children’s age category and had tradition in his favor. He led with 2-1 set and 6-3 “obliging” the other side to take a timeout, but the continuation was different. The Eleusinian ace paid for the ups and downs in his performance and eventually won with 3-2 sets.
Enebon later found themselves 2-0 down with a shock defeat of reigning world men’s doubles champion Christian Carlsson to Leonardo Muti (also in sudden death), but managed to level at 2-2 to decide everything in the second singles match of Sgouropoulos.
Leonardo Muti (the older of the two brothers) is No. 303 in the world, a very capable left-hander, and he had also gained psychology by overcoming Sweden’s Carlsson. He was also ahead of the Greek champion, but the latter, even if he did not have a very good night, quickly overtook the score and showed his great quality and composure at the most critical points. His second game also went to 6 points in the 5th set, but this time he smiled giving the victory to his team.
Details of the Top Spin Messina-Enebon 2-3 match:
Matteo Muti-Yiannis Sgouropoulos 3-2 (11-5, 8-11, 10-12, 11-8, 6-2)
Leonardo Muti-Christian Carlsson 3-2 (7-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6, 6-4)
Marco Rek Daldoso-Anders Lind 1-3 (11-7, 4-11, 5-11, 5-11)
M. Muti-Carlson 0-3 (8-11, 8-11, 4-11)
L. Mouti-Sgouropoulos 2-3 (11-6, 8-11, 2-11, 11-9, 3-6)
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