Balkan Championship A-C: Afos Konstantinopoulos secured a medal in men’s doubles

The representatives of the Greek table tennis will meet for the second time on the podium of the winners of the Balkan championship, in Albena, Bulgaria. On the fourth day of the games, the brothers Giorgos and Konstantinos Konstantinopoulos scored two victories in the men’s doubles table of “16”, they entered the 4th place and since there are no matches for the 3-4 places, they secured entry to the medals. The left-handed Greek champions of the competition are the 2nd favorite in the Balkan championship and given their high skills they can definitely go a step or steps higher in tomorrow’s 06/09 finale of the competition. We remind you that yesterday Sunday the first distinction of the Greek colors came with the winning of the gold medal in the men’s team. A good report is also that K. Konstantinopoulos reached the 8th place in the men’s singles, Malamatenia Papadimitriou/Dimitra-Thomais Tsekoura and Aliki Kioufi/Ioanna Gerasimatou in the women’s doubles. Gerasimos Hatzilygeroudis, G. Konstantinopoulos and Ioanna Gerasimatou placed in positions 9-16 of the singles.

The men’s doubles started from the round of 16. From the base of the scoreboard, G. and K. Konstantinopoulos initially eliminated the Bulgarians Eren Bekir/Soyan Shariev with a 3-0 set. In the quarter-finals they also defeated Turks Ugurcan Dursun/Ali Afsin Gul 3-0 and secured a place in the medals.

Hatzilygeroudis and Antoniadis were eliminated in the 1st round, losing to Bulgarians Stefan Dimitrov/Radoslav Kotev in 3-1 sets.

A table of “16” was also formed in the women’s doubles. In the 1st round, Gerasimatou/Kufi overcame Enra Subasic/Sara Radak from Bosnia/Herzegovina and Serbia respectively with 3-2 sets and were defeated in the medal match by Turkey’s Ozge Yilmaz/Ece Harak (1st favorite of the competition) with 3-1 set.

Papadimitriou and Tsekoura had a similar course. They prevailed in the round of 16 of Lene Osmani/Alma Mehmeti from Kosovo with 3-0 sets and lost in the round of 8 against the Bulgarians Maria Yovkova/Kalina Hristova with 3-0.

In the men’s singles, the knockout scoreboard was “32” and three of our athletes had a bye in the 1st round. In the round of 16, Konstantinos defeated the Turkish Yilmaz Tugai with 3-0 sets and in the quarterfinals he lost 3-0 to the also Turkish Ibrahim Guduz. George had a strong match in the 2nd round with Romanian Alexandrou Manole and was eliminated with 3-1 sets.

Hatzilygeroudis also went through the 1st round without a match and in the round of 16 today he was defeated by the Bulgarian Vladimir Petkov with 3-2 and the last set ending 14-12. Riniotis competed in the “32” and was defeated by the Romanian Mihai Dumitrescu with 3-1 sets.

A scoreboard of “32” was also made in the women’s singles. Gerasimatou had a bye in the 1st round and in the round of 16 she was defeated 3-2 and again in the details (as in the team) by Serb Reka Bezeg. The 5th set ended 11-8. Papadimitriou had an inconclusive match in the 1st round with the Bulgarian Kalina Hristova until she lost 3-2 sets. Kioufi also had an opponent from Bulgaria in “32” and was eliminated by Maria Yovkova, who is also an AEK athlete, with 3-0.