Two gold medals and one silver in the individual events of the international table tennis tournament of Cyprus

In the established and important table tennis event, the Cyprus Friendship tournament, with invitations held every year at this time in Nicosia by the Pan-Cyprus Table Tennis Federation, Greece won two more gold medals in the individual events and a silver.

Alexandros Madesis was crowned champion in the men’s singles, while, together with Stathis Manolopoulos, they climbed to the highest step of the podium in the men’s doubles. In addition, 15-year-old Mavra Kontopoulou took second place in the women’s singles.

Together with her peer, Alcisti Kasimi, they came close to the winners’ podium in the women’s doubles as well, but finished fourth.

At the “Evangelos Florakis” multi-training center, the second part of the tournament included the singles and doubles for men and women. In all events, groups were created in the first phase, the second had a “knockout”, in fact, in the singles, the matches in the main draw were decided by the system of the best of seven sets.

Madesis only had victories in a group of five athletes, Manolopoulos qualified with the second place from a group of four and the draw for the quarter-finals pitted the athletes of our national youth team against each other. Madesis won 4-2 sets and in the semi-finals he eliminated the Cypriot Elia Sarbel 4-0. In the final, he met an athlete from Lebanon and won 4-1.

Manolopoulos was ranked 5-8.

In the women’s singles, a similar scenario was recorded for the Greek side. Kontopoulou took first place in her own group and Kasimi advanced to the board with second place.

In the first round, a new Greek “duel” came, where Kontopoulou beat her friend and teammate at PKD Tavrou with 4-2 sets. In the semi-finals, she performed very well against the young Cypriot champion Fotini Meletie and prevailed with 4-3 sets. In the final, Kontopoulou lost to a Jordanian athlete with 4-2 sets.

In the men’s doubles, Manolopoulos/Madesis defeated the Cypriots Sarbel/Theofanos very hard in the foursome with 3-2 sets and in the final they defeated a duo from Lebanon with 3-1 sets.

In the women’s doubles, Kontopoulou/Kassimi lost in the semifinals and then claimed the bronze medal in a match for places 3-4, until they were narrowly beaten 3-2 sets by Jordanian gymnasts.