European Team Championship: The Women’s National Table Tennis Team has been disqualified

In the decisive final match of the first phase in Malmö, the National Women’s Table Tennis Team fought against Spain with all their strength on Tuesday, but lost 3-1 in a set and remained in third place in the eighth group of the European Team Championship.

Against a team that relies heavily on two athletes of Chinese origin, it temporarily tied at 1-1, later it had the opportunity with Konstantina Paridis to go ahead in the score, while it also made demands in the final with Katerina Toliou.

The latter brought the partly positive result, while in her only participation in the event, Ioanna Gerasimatou also did very well. Due to an unforeseen problem, the girls were not coached by their coach Giorgos Karytsa and the men’s national team player, Kostas Vatsaklis, sat on the bench.

The Women’s National selector could not be in the gym because on Monday he had an accident, after he twisted his knee and went to the hospital. He took x-rays, which luckily showed no fracture, but the leg was swollen, doctors bandaged it, and the national coach had to stay in a hotel. Upon returning to Athens, he will go for new exams.

In the decisive match for the second privileged position, the Greek trio had a change compared to the premiere against Sweden. Ioanna Gerasimatou was used instead of Malamatenia Papadimitriou and, in fact, the match started with our team getting B in the draw.

The 22-year-old left-hander (who has not been rated in the international ranking list lately) had a match, which first of all meant valuable experience, as she faced Maria Xiao who is ranked number 17 in Europe. He naturally lost 3-0 sets, but he performed so well that he came close to taking at least one set.

The current champion of Greece pressed with the combina-tires, which she has on both sides (“teeth”) and put many balls, surprising several times. Her “award” was that she claimed something substantial in all three sets, in fact in the third she had a bowl set and another one ended with a marginal difference.

From position 1, Katerina Toliou, number 41 in September in the European ranking, entered the table. She faced another Spaniard of Chinese origin, Sofia Xuan Zhang (No. 46), and knew that she had an increased chance of winning. Not only because she was not behind in quality, but also because she had identified her opponent’s defensive vulnerabilities from the match on Monday against Bergstrom (who has the same style of play as Toliou).

Indeed, Toliou had duration, consistency in defenses and well-chosen attacks and took control of the match. Most of all, she had a strong mentality and this was also seen in the second set, which she took in overtime, and also in the fourth when Zhang had easily preceded the reduction of the score. With a wonderful competitive face, Toliou achieved a remarkable victory with 3-1 sets and equalized for Greece.

Constantina Paridis (No. 206) competed in position 3 this time in a tactical move and met native Spaniard Maria Berthosa (No. 169). The morale of the whole team was high, the opponent was absolutely up to the standards of the 2022 champion of Greece and this was also seen in practice.

With attacks from the forehand and backhand she controlled the situation, while, on the other hand, the Spaniard pressed with a game close to the table. Paridi lost a small lead in the first set for 0-1 and the continuation was even tougher when she “bent” in overtime.

She took the third set in overtime and in the fourth she missed some crucial attacks to get the upper hand for Berthoza, the experienced international temporarily reduced us to a point, but she did not manage to do anything substantial.

In the fourth separate match, Toliou faced Xiao. Left-handed, like Zhang, but more stable and with more assets in her game. Undeterred, our champion wanted to chase the surprise and knew that, first of all, she had to move to a high standard of performance.

Indeed, she managed to come out strong in this match as well regardless of being down 3-0 sets. He started with a 5-3 lead, in the second set he had two chances to equalize at 10-9 and 11-10, while in the third he gained a small lead and saw it “evaporate”.

In detail, the progress of the match Spain-Greece 3-1:

Maria Xiao-Ioanna Gerasimatou 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 13-11)

Sofia Xuan Zhang-Katerina Toliou 1-3 (6-11, 11-13, 11-2, 6-11)

Maria Berthosa-Konstantina Paridis 3-1 (11-8, 16-14, 10-12, 11-7)

Xiao-Toliou 3-0 (11-7, 13-11, 11-7)

Sweden won the first place in the eighth group with 4 points. In the table of 16, Spain followed with 3 points. Spain’s substitute is Yana Riera.