In the opening tournament of the Star ping pong category, which started in Tunisia on Wednesday, Malamatenia Papadimitriou spent the night in the first four of the junior double Under 19 and on Thursday she claims the entrance to the final and, why not, even the first.
Papadimitriou is collaborating with the Italian Nicole Arlia and, having had a bye in the round of 16, in the quarterfinals they eliminated a couple from Spain with great difficulty and on Thursday afternoon they face the first favorite, the Romanians Elena Zacharia / Bianca Mei-Rozou.
The result from the first day of the strong tournament could be doubly good for our champion. This is because in the simple U19 it was ahead on Wednesday afternoon with 2-0 sets in the decisive game for qualifying for the “16” board, but in the end it accepted the upset with 3-2 and was eliminated with the third place in its group.
In the double, Papadimitriou / Arlia initially expected an opponent from the 1st round. Eventually, they would face Eugenia Sastre / Enjoa Cristobal, who eliminated Matilda Hanson / Jana Vazedova from Sweden and the Czech Republic 3-1, respectively.
The quarterfinal took place on the night, with the Greek-Italian duo having the last ball and correct tactics in the most critical points. It prevailed over the Spaniards with 3-1 sets and with everything being judged by a marginal difference (9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9).
Papadimitriou and Arlia will fight for something even better on Thursday against the Romanians Zacharia and Mei Rozou, who are also distinguished in the doubles.
In the junior singles, eight groups of four athletes were formed in Tunis, as is the limit at the Youth Star Contender. Our 18-year-old champion (number 57 in the U19 world ranking) was in the second row of the first group.
In the premiere, on Wednesday morning, she defeated Egypt’s Sara Elakem with 3-1 sets (12-10, 11-6, 6-11, 11-7). He then lost 3-0 to Romania’s Elena Zacharia, who is at the top of the world rankings (4-11, 8-1, 8-11).
In the third match she played for the second place in the group and the qualification to the “knockouts” with the Czech Jana Vazedova (No. 59), who also had a victory and a defeat at that time. Papadimitriou made an ideal start, taking a lead of two sets, but the continuation was not proportional. He bent down with 3-2 sets and was left out of the board (11-7, 12-10, 7-11, 8-11, 6-11).
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Source: Sport-fm
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