A very strong match included yesterday 20/10 for Panathinaikos A.O. the start in stage 2 of the European Table Tennis Women’s Cup.
They were beaten 3-2 by Romania’s Constanta in Group 3 in Linares, Spain, and their new European bid for qualification (after last month’s Champions League stage 1) has been hit hard.
The Athenian team was one set away from victory, eventually bowing out at the end of a thrilling match where three of the five individual matches were decided in five sets. Certainly, however, she stood well once again and brought her momentum to the European stage. The two victories came from Katerina Toliou, while in the six points of the last set, Konstantina Paridis was defeated in the middle of the match and the Slovenian Anna Tofad at the end.
Panathinaikos closes its games in the group today 21/10 at 11:00 Greek time against Almendra, who had defeated the Romanians 3-1 earlier yesterday. In the event of a win, it will be favored for qualification in a three-way tie.
In its premiere, Panathinaikos faced a very capable team with young Romanian athletes. He easily lost the first individual match, but the rest turned into a thriller.
Toliu against May Roseu was tied from a 2-1 lead in sets and 7-4 in points, but in the 5th set she made that upset. He was losing 5-3 and prevailed 6-5 in “sudden death”. Last summer in Orestiada, May Roseu was Balkan runner-up in junior singles.
From position 3, Paridis lost the 1st set against Mitrofan from a 10-7 lead. Then he found himself losing 2-0, but he reacted brilliantly and equalized. The 5th set resolved the… differences and here again this time there was a defeat for the Greek colors.
She met an internationally distinguished athlete immediately after Toliou. In particular, Zacharia, current junior European champion and double European champion of girls (in 2018 and 2019). With the exception of the 1st set, our defending champion performed very well and achieved a remarkable victory by tying again.
Then Tophad re-entered the table. Against May Roseau, she turned 0-1 into 2-1 in her favour, but did not finish her attempt positively. The Romanian equalized and later took the lead in the …halftime 5th set and capitalized on it.
The evolution of the Constanta-Panathinaikos 3-2 match in detail:
Elena Zacharia-Ana Tofad 3-0 (11-4, 11-3, 11-8)
Bianca May Roseu-Katerina Toliou 2-3 (2-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-8, 5-6)
Luciana Mitrofan-Konstantina Paridis 3-2 (12-10, 11-8, 9-11, 8-11, 6-4)
Zacharias-Tolios 1-3 (11-7, 9-11, 6-11, 9-11)
May Roseau-Toffat 3-2 (11-7, 8-11, 11-13, 11-6, 6-3)
Saturday’s match against host Almendra starts at 11:00 and is broadcast live on the link Museo de la Almendra Francisco Morales (ESP) vs Panathinaikos (GRE). The Spanish club also has an athlete of Chinese origin, Meng Jiaqi, who achieved two individual victories in the morning against Constanța.
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