Giorgos Kosmas and Mavra Kontopoulou secured a medal in the boys-girls mixed doubles at the Orestiada Balkan Youth Table Tennis Championship and it will be the third for our National teams in this year’s event after the silver in the youth team and the bronze in the children’s team.
The duo made it to the semi-finals and, as there is no play-off for places 3-4 in the event, they will surely be on the podium. Three more Greek couples chased similar success, Stathis Manolopoulos/Evangelia Meramvelliotaki and Alexandros Madesis/Stella Tzaridou in the mixed Under 19 and Kostas Fakaros and Vasiliki Boulas in the mixed Under 15.
In the evening they were defeated by strong twins, but also the placement in the 5-8 places is a positive report. Madesis and Tzaridou battled to five sets.
On Saturday, Kosmas and Kontopoulou will seek another step, also the doubles for boys and girls will begin, as well as the singles tableau.
In the boys-girls mixed doubles there was a scoreboard of “32”. The sign of something very good was evident from the start for Kosmas/Kontopoulos, after they eliminated the number 1 favorites of the competition, Montenegrins Krivokapic/Sembek, in the first round. In a perfectly balanced match, they prevailed with 3-2 sets (5-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-5, 13-11) and also gained psychology. In the round of 16, they defeated the Bosnians Vesovic/Ceric with 3-1 sets (11-9, 10-12, 11-4, 11-7).
In the quarter-finals, they faced Moldova’s Mosneaga/Sireac. They controlled the first two sets, then encountered more difficulty, but reached the final 3-1 set with a comeback from 3-8 in the fourth set (11-7, 11-6, 10-12, 11-9).
On Saturday at 18:30 at 18:30 on the “televised” table 1, the athletes of Tauro Table Tennis compete for entry to the final against Romanian opponents Istrate/Beazu.
In the same age category, Fakaros and Bula initially eliminated the Montenegrins Radonić/Vujović with 3-1 sets (10-12, 11-7, 11-5, 11-4). In the round of 16, they continued positively against the Bosnians Celic/Sadoje with a 3-1 set (11-6, 9-11, 11-7, 13-11).
In the eight, the champions of Greece were outsiders against the second favorites, the Romanians Pontar/Gifkou, they fought for the best, but lost 3-0 sets (6-11, 8-11, 5-11).
The Romanian duo eliminated Yannis Koutras/Alkisti Kasimis earlier with a 3-0 set (6-11, 9-11, 8-11). In the round of 32, the Greek couple had a hard time defeating the Kosovars Mahmouti/Bailey with 3-2 sets (11-3, 11-8, 10-12, 8-11, 11-7).
Konstantinos Alexoudis and Stella Mavromataki defeated Jakimovski/Stoyanovska from North Macedonia in the first round with 3-1 sets (3-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8) and in the round of 16 they were defeated 3-0 from Romanians Nagy/Prekup (9-11, 6-11, 5-11).
Also, Petros Liotsis and Angela Noure started with a win. They beat the Bulgarians Stoytskov/Miltanova with 3-1 sets (11-8, 11-13, 11-9, 11-6) and in the second round they lost to the Turks Kahraman/Simsek with 3-0 sets (4-11, 7 -11, 2-11).
Kioseloglou/Zenidis were eliminated in the round of 32 by the Bulgarians Nikolaev/Nikolova with 3-0 sets (9-11, 7-11, 7-11).
A similar tableau was made in the doubles mixed teenagers-youths even after two preliminary matches preceded it. Madesis and Tzaridou, current champions of Greece in the category, initially defeated the Bulgarians Dimitrov/Persova with 3-1 sets (11-9, 11-8, 8-11, 12-10).
In the Round of 16, they eliminated Turks Temel/Nebhan 3-0 (11-2, 11-8, 11-6) and entered the medal match. The match against the Romanians Guesdean/Ungvari was exciting and was decided in extra time. The Greek duo equalized from 0-2 sets behind, then saved a match point, but finally “bent” 3-2 and found themselves in positions 5-8. (4-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-13).
Manolopoulos/Meramvelliotakis gave an equally great “battle”. In the “32”, they defeated the Kosovars Maloku/Hashani with 3-0 sets (11-9, 11-6, 11-8) and in the “16” the Serbian Vesmar/Gvozdenovic with 3-1 sets (11-8, 11 -5, 11-13, 11-3).
In the eight, they took the first set against Turks Dursun/Karaka, but lost in detail the next and were eliminated 3-1 (11-7, 7-11, 6-11, 10-12).
Dionysis Timamopoulos and Lemonia Gaydatzi came very close to the quarter-finals and won 3-2 sets in a big match against Guesdean/Ungvari. In the first round, they easily defeated Glavevski/Kovacovska from North Macedonia in three sets (11-2, 11-4, 11-6) and against the Romanian duo they were 2-0 ahead in the sets, but they also took the lead in the fifth set with 4 points (11-9, 11-7, 10-12, 9-11, 8-11).
Alexandros Alexopoulos and Chrissi Fotiadou lost at the beginning to the Bulgarian duo Bekir/Georgieva with 3-1 sets (12-10, 4-11, 7-11, 11-13).
Yannis Anastasiadis and Katerina Alexoudis were eliminated by the Serbians Ninkovic/Radak with 3-0 sets (7-11, 5-11, 6-11).
Finally, Konstantinos Milikoudis and Dimitra Petsiva played in one of the two qualifiers and lost to the Serbians Sepa/Popovic with 3-1 sets (12-10, 3-11, 12-14, 8-11).
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