In positions 9-16 of the Bulgarian Youth Contender Manolopoulos in Under 19 and Fakaros in Under 15

The finale in Panagiouriste was sweet for the great participation of Greece in the strong World Table Tennis Youth Contender in Bulgaria. Stathis Manolopoulos in the Under 19 age category and Kostas Fakaros in the Under 15 age category were placed in positions 9-16 of the singles. Manolopoulos entered the 3rd round and added to his very positive run in the corresponding open of Turkey in January, when he had reached the 8th. Fakaros advanced to the 2nd round by eliminating the 9th favorite and scored his best score in the institution in the children’s category. Giannis Anastasiadis also had a remarkable victory in the knockouts in the U19 category, Giannis Koutras also advanced to the 2nd round of the same table. Anastasiadis, Koutras and Alexandros Madesis, who was directly in the 2nd round of the U19, finished their effort in positions 17-32, while Giorgos Kosmas, who had also qualified on the board of this category, finished in positions 33-64. Useful, in any case, for experiences and conclusions, the presence at Arena Asarel and for the 15 Greek athletes, several of whom competed for the first time in a Youth Contender. The teenagers Giorgos Gerakios, Grigoris Tsilopoulos, the teenagers Mavra Kontopoulou, Alkistis Kasimi, Chrysavgi Tsilopoulos and the parents Dimitris-Marios Alexandridis, Michalis Bithavas, George Sassanis and Nikos Alexidis checked their condition.

The coaches were Kostas Madesis of AEK, Christos Tsarsitalides of Poseidon Loutraki, Vania Zaneva of AS Pera Thessaloniki, Alexis Arseniadis, Aris Tsakiroglou, Michalis Tsahakis of Tavros Table Tennis and Konstantinos Kostopoulos, who has a partnership with Tavros teams.

The table of athletes up to 19 years old was “64” and had many byes. Manolopoulos (number 26 in the category), who took first place in his group yesterday, initially advanced without a fight and in the round of “32” he was completely ready for a new step. He performed very well against Slovakian Jakub Holubczyk (No. 21 and winner on Saturday in Group 20) and won 3-0 sets (11-8, 11-6, 11-6).

His job in the round of 16, at table 2 (and live on the internet) became more… tough against Korea’s Kim Gaon, 1st favorite and number 9 in the U19 world rankings. In the first part of the match, he troubled the opponent with the defense, even leading with 6-3. Afterwards, however, the Asian made an incredible run, generally minimizing mistakes and using serves and strong attacks for the final 3-0 set (6-11, 1-11, 7-11).

Madesis (No. 30) also entered the 2nd round without a fight. There, his mission against the Romanian Oria Stefan Ursut, who as leader had taken the 1st place in the 16th group, was very difficult and this was proven in practice. Competitive of course from the beginning to the end, the current champion of Greece for young men, but he was eliminated with 3-0 sets (8-11, 6-11, 10-12).

Koutra (No. 46) came in very strong in the morning and in “64” he defeated the Bulgarian Eduard Simonyan with a 3-0 set (11-6, 11-6, 11-3). Immediately after the obstacle became much higher, as the opponent was the Korean Kwon Hyuk, who was number 3 on the board and on Friday won 1st place in the K17 category in Panagiouriste. Without pressure the Loutraki champion (in the match that was broadcast online) made a remarkable appearance regardless of the 3-0 set loss. He was with the Asian until the middle of the 2nd set (5-5), then he saved two match points and fought back in overtime (4-11, 6-11, 12-14).

Anastasiadis gave a new “battle” in the five sets with the Englishman Jakub Pivovar (number 15 in the tournament), as had happened in the groups of the U17 category. This time he emerged as the winner in an exciting match, which was decided in extra time. In the initial 2-0 set, Thessalonikios (No. 47) accepted the draw, but finally prevailed in the details (11-8, 13-11, 6-11, 8-11, 12-10). In the “32”, Anastasiadis measured his forces against the French Selian Besnier, 2nd favorite of the tournament and number 25 in the world ranking list of the category. He was eliminated with a 3-0 set, however he showed his virtues again and really pressured the opponent in the first two sets (7-11, 9-11, 4-11).

Kosmas in the 1st round met Yang Ze Yi from Singapore for the second time in the tournament. On Thursday, in the groups of the K17 category, he had lost with 3-2 sets, now he presented himself as strong, but he was also somewhat unlucky. It is characteristic that in the final 3-0 he lost all the sets in overtime (10-12, 10-12, 11-13). Asiatis was number 19 in the competition and Kosmas was number 27.

In the K15 category there was a table of “32” with the same number of athletes. Fakaros, who was number 23 in the seeding, was faced in the morning with the very remarkable left-handed Bulgarian Miroslav Smid, who yesterday won the first place in the 9th group, where he was the leader. It was a strong match with our 14-year-old international dominating the most critical points and winning 3-1, winning all his sets by a narrow margin (14-12, 8-11, 11-9, 16-14). In the round of 16 he faced an even more capable opponent, the also left-handed Robert Istrate from Romania, number 5 in the category. He was eliminated with a 3-0 set, however he again had very good intervals in his performance (7-11, 6-11, 9-11). Istrate was admired by Greek sports fans in the summer at the Balkan youth championship in Orestiada when he won “gold” in the children’s doubles and “silver” Balkanionikis in the children’s singles.