WTT Feeder Bulgaria: The Greek gymnasts were eliminated in the first round

On the third day of the matches at the World Table Tennis Feeder in Bulgaria, which take place in the facilities of the city of Panagiouriste, Katerina Toliou, Elisavet Terpou, Malamatenia Papadimitriou and Dimitra-Thomais Tsekoura fought in the first matches of the main table in the women’s singles and stayed in positions 33-64.

The first three gymnasts entered the board directly, while Tsekura qualified from a “knockout” qualifier. Also, Papadimitriou was in the first round of the mixed doubles with Spanish teammate Juan Perez and they were eliminated in the round of 16 with a marginal defeat in five sets.

Papadimitriou and Tsekoura remain in Bulgaria, as from Saturday they also compete in the Balkan Men’s-Women’s Championship in Albena.

In Panagiouriste it was a given for the blue and white colors that there would be difficulties from the start of the scoreboard. It is characteristic that Toliu, our first athlete in the world ranking, was invited to face the second favorite, the Chinese Wu Yangchen. Our defending-style champion was competitive for most of the match, but she didn’t avoid a 3-0 set loss to a strong player (number 55 in the world) with an Asian penholder grip. The evolution: 6-11, 9-11 and 4-11.

Earlier, Papadimitriou faced the Bulgarian Maria Yovkova, who is also competing in Greece with AEK’s shirt. The match was perfectly balanced in the first three sets, until Yovkova (No. 562) took a 2-1 set lead and took the psychological one advantage to shape the final score with a difference (7-11, 11-7, 9-11, 2-11).

In the morning, Terpou met another athlete known to Greek fans, who not only competes in A1, but is also her teammate in Panathinaikos. Our 23-year-old international faced the Slovenian Ana Tofad (No. 248). She pressed from the start, but failed to be more efficient in the critical moments to lose 3-0 sets (7-11, 8-11, 9-11).

Cekura was a clear underdog against an athlete from the top 100 of the world, France’s Charlotte Lutz (No. 94). After her victory on Tuesday in the qualifiers, she made another good appearance and may have been eliminated with a 3-0 set, but she struggled with the “tooth” and reached “closed” scores in all sets (9-11, 12- 14, 7-11).

In the morning, in the round of 16 of the mixed doubles, Papadimitriou and Spain’s Juan Perez had a lopsided encounter with the second favourites, Eric Juti/Isabella Lupulescu from Brazil and Serbia respectively. They led with 2-1 sets, showing very good cooperation, but they lost the next two by the smallest margin and were out of the eight (12-14, 11-9, 11-1, 9-11, 9-11).