Defeats in the first quarterfinals of the European Table Tennis Cups for Sgouropoulos, Gioni

Giannis Sgouropoulos’s No Ulm gave Germany the first quarterfinal of the Champions League against UMMC from Russia. Despite her good performance, she could not go against the odds, she lost 3-0 sets and her work in the rematch became extremely difficult.

Gionis’s Polish Bogoria faced Roskilde in Denmark for the eighth place in the European Championship. He lost with 3-2 sets, but the result leaves many chances for qualifying for the semifinals through the decisive second match in Poland.

At the individual level, our champions performed again according to their enormous value. Sgouropoulos lost with difficulty to the Englishman Liam Pitsford with 3-1 sets, while Gionis, who always faces the well-known problem in Achilles, had two matches in five sets with one victory (with the Swede Jens Ludkvist) and one defeat (by Danish Michael Meiz).

In the Champions League, the match in Germany ended the first match of the quarterfinals on Thursday night.

With her youthful line-up, Noi Ulm gave her best for a mini overtaking against the UMMC, which holds the Europe Cup, while she has also played in a Champions League final. Sgouropoulos and his Russian teammates were completely competitive against one of the two top clubs in Russia, but lost in four sets and three individual matches.

Sgouropoulos was placed in 2nd place and in a “full” set was defeated 3-1 by the Englishman Liam Pittsford, who is in 15th place in the world.

The UMMC reached the 3-0 set, losing only three sets and, of course, became an unwavering favorite for the qualification, in view of the second match that will be held in Verknaya on the 19th of the month. The team that will prevail in the double “battle” is expected to meet in the semifinals the other top Russian club, Orenburg, which defeated Sporting Lisbon 3-0, having in its composition the recovering from injury Dmitry Ovcharov, but also Alexander Simbaev, who just last Saturday played against Olympiakos in the Greek A1!

In detail, the development of the match Noi Ulm-UMMC 0-3:

Vladimir Sintorenko-Jonathan Groth 1-3 (7-11, 9-11, 11-9, 10-12)

Giannis Sgouropoulos-Liam Pittsford 1-3 (10-12, 8-11, 11-7, 6-11)

Lev Katzman-Tomislav Pukar 1-3 (9-11, 11-4, 1-11, 8-11)

In the eight of the Europe Cup, Bogoria achieved its goal by half. In other words, he could not reach the victory, but with the marginal defeat he maintains increased hopes of qualifying. In an exciting match, the Polish team led 1-0 and 2-1, but Roskilde turned the situation around and prevailed with 3-2 sets. The result was literally judged in the final, in the second match of Gionis and, in fact, with the regulation of the sixth point.

The top defender faced the European champion of ordinary men in 2009, Michael Meiz. The match went to 2-2, now the opponents were not chasing the classic 11, but to reach 6 first, until the left-handed Dane prevailed with the big international “parchments”.

Gionis, however, was very good at returning to the tables after about 70 days. This was evident in his first match, where he defeated with 3-2 sets and 6-1 in the end the Swedish former European champion of the men’s team, Jens Ludkvist.

In detail, the development of the Roskilde-Bogoria match 3-2:

Jens Ludkvist-Panagiotis Gionis 2-3 (12-10, 5-11, 11-8, 2-11, 1-6)

Michael Meiz-Milos Regzimski 3-1 (7-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-6)

Mikel Hinderson-Pavel Sirucek 0-3 (6-11, 3-11, 9-11)

Ludkvist-Regzimski 3-0 (11-8, 11-7, 1-7)

Meiz-Gionis 3-2 (11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 2-11, 6-4)

The rematch that will decide which team will qualify in the four of the tournament is scheduled for Friday the 21st of the month in Grojisk. The winner will face either the Czech Ostrov or the Spanish Borges, who will face each other for the first time tomorrow.