A 3-2 set loss for Enebonne of Sgouropoulos in the first final of the French Pro A

In the first final of the playoffs of the French Table Tennis League, Yannis Sgouropoulos’s Enebon suffered a 3-2 set defeat at its sports center by Rouen and is at a disadvantage ahead of the decisive second match at “Kindarena de Rouen” on Friday.

Sgouropoulos was not in the lineup and the team had a bad day in Taipei great Chuan Chi Yuan, who suffered two losses.

The big …damage on the other side was done to the “blues” by an athlete who is not among the best in Europe and is not high in the world ranking (number 208), the Hungarian Adam Zudy, who scored two great victories at the start and the end of the match.

The second final will start at 20:30 and, of course, Sgouropoulos would like his new big challenge in a foreign league, after winning the title in Sweden in 2019 with Eslov, to include his participation in the starting three .

Enebonne had won first place in the regular season of Pro A, in fact they had won both rounds of Rouen, 3-2 sets as a guest and 3-1 sets as a home team. The odds of victory were in her favor yesterday as well and how could that not be the case when she has in her trio number 20 (Chuan Chi Yuan) and world number 1 (Christian Carlson), while Anders Lind just before a few days advanced to the quarter-finals of the World Championship?

At the table, however, the predictions were not justified, Rouen (third in the regular season of the event) made an amazing appearance and won 3-2 sets. Leading 2-0, Enebon fought back and equalized, with Carlsson already defeating the Austrian Gardos with a reversal from 0-2 sets, but in the final, Zudi reserved a second blow…

Of course, nothing is lost for Enebon, who on Friday will be aiming for the upset to claim their fifth French championship and add to this year’s European Cup trophy.

The evolution of the Enebonne-Rouen 2-3 final:

Christian Karlsson-Adam Zudi 1-3

Chuan Chi Yuan-Robert Gardos 1-3

Anders Lind-Alexander Robineau 3-0

Carlson-Gardos 3-2

Chuan-Zudi 1-3

Apart from Sgouropoulos, there are also two coincidences with the date of the final, which are related to the Greek colors. The main one that on 06/06/2017 the huge Kallinikos Kreanga, who was officially invited to the match by the management but was unable to attend due to commitments, had played his farewell game against Enebon on the same date. With the club he had celebrated four French championships in his long and impressive career.

The second coincidence is that the former captain of our national men’s team and current president of the E.F.O.E.P.A., Costas Papageorgiou, had competed in Rouen for some time, and also on 06/06/2017 he was crowned with the jersey of the champion in the second national division of the country.