They were eliminated in the qualifiers of the Croatian table tennis Contender Toliu, Terpu

Katerina Toliu and Elizabeth Terpou competed on the opening day of the Croatian World Table Tennis Contender in Zagreb on Monday and suffered losses in the first qualifying round that put them out of contention.

They chased the winning start, they made a good effort, but again this special and very difficult condition of the prize money tournaments, that is to have only “knockout” matches and draws, counted against them, which is not in their favor.

Giannis Sgouropoulos will also take part in the same tournament, also coming from the European Games in Poland. Simply, the four-time European champion competes on Tuesday because he went through the first qualifying round without a fight. His opponent in Qualifying Round 2 is the Italian Niagol Stoyanov.

Toliu and Terpu aimed to go as far as possible in Croatia and get points for the world ranking. Their task, however, was very difficult from Qualifying Round 1. At noon, Toliu (No. 176 in the current world rankings) faced India’s Diya Parag Chitale (No. 129).

He came close to taking the first set and the lead. However, she lost it in extra time and then did not have the same stability, while the 20-year-old Indian performed even better with the defense. In the 3-0 set loss the sets were: 10-12, 5-11 and 4-11.

Also, in the first qualifying round, Terpou (No. 399) later faced naturalized American Amy Wang (No. 82). He started well and with a reversal from 4-7 he managed to win the first set in overtime. Much to her credit, however, the Chinese-born athlete then got through her knocks. Terpou did not find solutions and won with 3-1 sets (13-11, 7-11, 4-11, 6-11).

Sgouropoulos had a “bye” in Qualifying Round 1 and on Tuesday he will face the strong Italian Niagol Stoyanov in another big event. In table 2 the match starts at 14:35 Greece.