Sgouropoulos claims the qualification on the main board in the German WTT Feeder III

Yannis Sgouropoulos has passed the first two qualifying rounds for the third World Table Tennis Feeder 2023 in Dusseldorf and qualifying through the total of four rounds is his main goal. His next opponent is the Englishman Samuel Walker at noon on Tuesday.

In the always strong German Feeder there are also three Greek athletes. Malamatenia Papadimitriou scored a victory in the women’s singles and was eliminated by a Chinese athlete in the second qualifying round, Dimitra-Thomais Tsekoura missed a very good chance to advance to the third qualifying round, while Elisavet Terpou was defeated in the first qualifying round.

Greece will participate in women’s doubles and mixed doubles. It should be noted that in the WTT player list for the upcoming Italian Feeder, which will take place in the city of Biela, George Konstantinopoulos now appears from the Greek side.

At the “Deutsches Tischtennis-Zentrum” in Dusseldorf, all our athletes were invited to go through the qualifying process, which also hides stress, since it has “knockout” matches. Sgouropoulos (number 380 in the world ranking) had a “bye” in the first qualifying round and in the second he was very strong against the Austrian Maciej Kolodziecik (No. 240). After the initial lead, he conceded a tie, but then he was unbeatable and allowed his opponent to take just two points (11-7, 7-11, 11-1, 11-1)!

At the same time, Walker eliminated the Dutchman Milo De Beer 3-0 without a fight. Tuesday’s clash certainly brings back memories for Sgouropoulos, as he had faced the Englishman twice in European Championship qualifiers in 2016-2017 when he was still making his first appearances for the Men’s National Team. He had a defeat in England and a victory in Athens…

In the women’s singles, Malamatenia Papadimitriou (No. 388) started with a victory on the board of the qualifiers. In a strong match, she defeated Belgium’s Margo Degraef (No. 362) with 3-1 sets (15-13, 11-2, 4-11, 14-12).

On Monday afternoon, in the second qualifier, she met the insurmountable obstacle of the Chinese Qi Fei (No. 127). He lost 3-0 sets and was eliminated (6-11, 5-11, 7-11).

Vasiliki Chekoura (No. 393) had a “bye” in the “64” of the qualifiers and in the “32” she faced Luxembourg’s Tessie Goderinger (No. 223). With a good appearance and a “weapon”, the “combination” rubber in the backhand took the lead with 2-1 sets, in the end he was one “breath” away from victory, but he bowed out with 3-2 sets. At the change of sides 2-5 in the fifth set he immediately leveled. Towards the end of the match, he found himself behind 8-10 and, after tying it at 10-10 with an incredible rally, he immediately got a match point! There, however, she lost her forehand attack and finally “bent” in overtime (6-11, 12-10, 15-13, 8-11, 11-13).

Elizabeth Terpou (No. 423) was eliminated in the first qualifying round and completed her competitive presence in Germany. She faced Serbian Dragana Vignijevic (No. 608) and lost 3-0 sets (7-11, 4-11, 9-11).

The Greek colors will also appear in the doubles. In the women’s doubles, Papadimitriou/Tsekouras participate and in the only qualifying round they claim entry to the board. They will face Amelie Solja/Vivien Solz from Austria and Luxembourg respectively on Tuesday.

Papadimitriou also participates in the mixed doubles with teammate Sgouropoulos. In the qualifying round of “16” they will face Ho Ying/Daniels Kogans (Malaysia/Latvia) on Tuesday with the aim of qualifying on the board.

* The WTT Feeder of Italy, in Biella (12-17/12), will be the last of the series for 2023. George Konstantinopoulos, who entered the last of the participants, will be together with Panagiotis Gionis, Konstantinos Angelakis, Yiannis Sgouropoulos , Giorgos Stamatouros, Katerina Toliou, Malamatenia Papadimitriou and Elisavet Terpou.

The national federal coach, Kostas Vatsaklis, will also move to the Italian city.