European Youth Championship: Nine qualifiers for Greece in the singles main table

With a “marathon” of games (also for the Greek side), the singles groups progressed from morning to night during the sixth day of the Under 15 and Under 19 European Championship, in Gliwice, Poland.

Through the difficult qualifying process, a total of 6 of our athletes qualified for the competition boards. With only wins and first place in their groups, junior Malamatenia Papadimitriou and boy Giorgos Kosmas advanced to the 1st round.

With the 2nd place in their respective groups, the teenagers Alexandros Madesis, Dionysis Timamopoulos, Stathis Manolopoulos, the teenager Stella Tzaridou, the boy Yannis Koutras and the girls Mavra Kontopoulou and Vasiliki Boulas reached their original goal.

All the rest of the guys claimed the qualification all the way, but didn’t make it on details. Those who were eliminated in the groups completed their quest in the singles, as there are no “consolation” matches. On the evening of Wednesday 19/07, the first mixed doubles matches are held. Let’s see all the results in simple:

The singles competition includes qualifying groups and knockout matches. 32 seeded players are directly on the main draw. The rest of the athletes participate in the qualifying process, among them all the Greeks. Also, only Papadimitriou has a place at the head of a group, the rest of our internationals were drawn from the other series of groups, even from the 4th, since we have athletes with very low international ratings or even unrated.

All matches in this phase are judged by the best of 5 sets system, the first two athletes from each group advance to the knockout phase. There the children compete with the best of 7 sets system. The boys’ and girls’ doubles in the Under 15 and Under 19 categories, as well as the mixed doubles, are played on a knock-out basis from the start and traditionally all matches can go as far as 3-2 sets.

In the evening, all the boards in the singles were drawn (all four are of “128”): In the teenage singles, Madesis faces tomorrow the Turkish Mehmet Karaboga, Manolopoulos against Tom Soltes from Luxembourg and Timamopoulos against the Italian Giacomo Alegransa. In the junior singles, Tzaridou will face Sweden’s Agnes Svensson and Papadimitriou will face Mane Ghazarian from Armenia. In the children’s singles, Kosmas meets the Spanish Christian Sanchez (who had eliminated Costas Fakaros in the afternoon) and Koutra meets the Englishman Rohan Dani. In the girls, Kontopoulou was drawn with Ana Slantoye from Bosnia/Herzegovina and Bula with Spain’s Isabel Consiglio.

In terms of time, the first qualification came with Dionysis Timamopoulos. There were 40 qualifying groups in the junior singles. The Kavaliotis defender passed as 2nd from 21st. Initially, he lost 3-2 sets to Slovenian leader Micha Podobnik and while leading 2-0 (11-8, 11-8, 7-11, 7-11, 4-11). But in the afternoon, he achieved his goal with a great 3-0 set win against Benjamin Ziadic (11-7, 11-7, 11-5). It should be noted that in the two team meetings, which preceded in Glivice, the Bosnian had won against all three other athletes of our national team.

In the 40th and last group, Alexandros Madesis secured qualification as 2nd. In fact, he was at the top, with 5 points, but he had lost in the match with Tretiak’s equal score. Our Athenian champion defeated the Swiss Abishek Vepa with 3-1 sets (14-12, 7-11, 11-6, 11-7) and the Scottish Jamie Jonsson with 3-0 (11-5, 11-5, 11-6). Late in the afternoon he lost a difficult 3-0 set to the Ukrainian Nazar Tretiak (head) and this shaped the final score (9-11, 9-11, 9-11).

A tie for 1st place also occurred in the 38th group, this was for the 3rd athletes and Stathis Manolopoulos smiled because he crossed the board as 2nd. He returned to the table without having overcome the discomfort in his leg and at the beginning he lost to the Englishman Benjamin Pigott with 3-1 sets (11-7, 9-11, 2-11, 7-11). But then he defeated the 1st seed, Tobias Hold from Austria with 3-1 sets (13-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-5) and Nathan James Hogg from Scotland with the same score (7-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-4) to reach 5 points. They were collected by Hold and Pigott. Our 18-year-old defender had a coefficient of 0 from the matchups with the two athletes and was ranked 2nd behind Hold.

Alexandros Alexopoulos competed in the 27th group and was eliminated with two losses in closed matches. In the morning he lost to Swiss leader Numa Ulris with 3-1 sets (12-14, 15-13, 6-11, 6-11) and in the afternoon to Cypriot Sarpel Elia with the same score (12-10, 5-11, 11-13, 9-11).

In the junior singles, 32 groups were created for the initial phase. Malamatenia Papadimitriou was in charge in the 2nd and confirmed her role without pressure. She defeated Enra Subasic from Bosnia/Herzegovina in 3-0 sets (11-7, 11-6, 11-5) and Rima Kilgatian from Armenia (11-6, 11-1, 11-5) in a row and took the 1st place.

Stella Tzaridou was favored in a three-way tie in the 23rd group to enjoy the qualification to the 1st round of the competition. She had a positive result against England’s Erin Green 3-1 sets (11-3, 10-12, 11-9, 11-7) and lost to Spain’s top seed Yana Riera 3-0 sets (3-11, 9-11, 9-11) and Tessie Dumont of Luxembourg in the final match 3-2 sets (11-5, 11-8, 10-12, 8-11, 7-11). Earlier, Green had defeated Dumont 3-1, thus creating a three-way tie at 4 points (Riera was first only with wins). The Thessaloniki champion had a coefficient of +1 because in the encounters with Green and Dumont it had a 3-1 win and a 3-2 loss and thus took the 2nd privileged position.

On the contrary, Lemonia Gaidatzi fell behind in a three-way tie in the 24th group and was left out of the table. In her first match, she achieved a remarkable 3-2 set victory against Bulgaria’s Sidelia Mutlou, with whom they had won the gold medal in the girls’ doubles of the Balkan championship last year (11-7, 8-11, 10-12, 11-7, 11-9). Then our 16-year-old international lost to Serva Dusica Todorovic with 3-0 sets (8-11, 3-11, 8-11) and with the same score to Poland’s Victoria Wrobel, who was in charge and also won the top of the group (7-11, 5-11, 8-11). A triple tie was created with Mutlou and Todorovic, Gaidatzi had a negative coefficient from her results with the two athletes (-2) and was limited to 4th place.

Chrysi Fotadou was eliminated with the 3rd place from the 25th group. She outlasted Alexandra Titievskaya of Finland 3-0 sets (11-8, 11-7, 12-10), but suffered losses to top seed Dorina Hudak of Hungary 3-1 (4-11, 11-8, 5-11, 10-12) and Romania’s Adela Struna, also by 3-1 scores (9-11, 11-7, 6-11, 8-11).

In the children’s singles, 24 qualifying groups were formed. Giorgos Kosmas prevailed with the absolute number of victories in the 18th group. In the 1st round, he defeated the Englishman Rohan Dani with 3-0 sets (11-8, 11-8, 11-7). In the 2nd the leading Israeli Or Magen with 3-2 sets and a small upset to ensure the qualification (11-4, 9-11, 1-11, 11-7, 13-11). Early in the evening, the Estonian Frank Tomas Turi was also imposed with a 3-0 set (11-7, 11-3, 11-1)

With the 2nd place from the 11th group, Yannis Koutras got on the board. At the start, he defeated the Scottish Joseph Mullern with 3-0 sets (11-5, 11-8, 11-9). In the 2nd match he lost 3-1 set to the 1st group favorite, the Dutch Brent Rode (3-11, 6-11, 12-10, 7-11), but in the end he was not in danger from the Swiss Kenan Egli for the 3-0 set (11-3, 11-7, 11-5).

Kostas Fakaros was eliminated as 3rd in the 4th group. In his first singles match overall in the tournament, he lost to the outstanding player Gorkim Ocal from Turkey in 3-0 sets (7-11, 7-11, 10-12). In the decisive match for the privileged 2nd place, he fought with 3-2 sets from the Spanish Christian Sanchez and while he had three match points in the 5th set (5-11, 11-5, 11-6, 9-11, 10-12).

There were 20 groups in the girls singles. Vasiliki Boula celebrated qualifying as 2nd from the 5th group in a three-way tie. She started with a 3-1 set win against Moldova’s Inna Lesinskaya (11-4, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8) before losing by the same score to Belgian top seed Lili Lafiner (12-10, 7-11, 6-11, 6-11). In the evening she was fully prepared against Valery Lonski from Estonia and achieved a 3-0 set decisive victory (11-2, 11-9, 11-5). Lafiner and Lessingaya were also in the 5 points. All of them had a coefficient of 0 because the matches between them ended with the same score (3-1 set), the points were counted and the Chiotian champion came 2nd behind Lesinskaya!

Mavra Kontopoulou also qualified as 2nd, in fact in the last match she scored a wide victory against the 1st favorite of the 9th group. In her first match, she was defeated by Ilvi Ulris from Switzerland with 3-1 sets (11-8, 10-12, 9-11, 8-11). In the 2nd match, she defeated Polina Ternovik from Israel 3-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-5) and in the conclusion she performed exceptionally well for the 3rd set against Alicia Warand from Belgium (11-7, 11-7, 11-5).

Alkistis Kasimi competed in the 11th group. In the premiere, she lost to Gabriela Altonen from Sweden with 3-1 sets (11-9, 6-11, 8-11, 9-11) and then defeated Beate Haralnsid from Norway with 3-1 sets (11-2, 4-11, 11-4, 11-6). In the 3rd round, she faced the leader Sara Khabarova from Slovakia and the 3-0 defeat left her 3rd in the group and out of the table (9-11, 10-12, 8-11).