Konstantinos Angelakis advanced to the first round of the men’s singles at Germany’s powerful World Table Tennis Feeder in Dusseldorf and he did it in the most impressive way! With three wins against athletes with a better position in the world ranking and, in fact, without losing a set!
He is now continuing for more points in the world ranking and the best possible placement, Panagiotis Gionis also begins his effort on the board of “64” on Wednesday and together the two compete in the first round of the men’s doubles.
Yiannis Sgouropoulos also “chased” entry to the main board, but was stopped in the third and penultimate qualifying round by a high barrier from Asia.
We remind you that Malamatenia Papapadimitriou also competed in Dusseldorf, who from Wednesday will be in Havirov, Czech Republic with Giorgos Stamatouros for the World Pre-Olympic mixed doubles tournament (11-12/04).
Angelakis (now number 308 in the world) made the step to the main board early in the evening. He faced the Belgian Florent Labier (No. 169) and if for many he was an outsider before the match started, he quickly turned into a favorite. The reason is that he maintained the very good pace he had from the opening day and surprised with his attacks, which paid off in a big way.
In addition, with a solid defense, he forced Labier into several mistakes and quickly gained the psychological advantage. In the third set, Angelakis led 6-3 and saw his opponent immediately go ahead (7-6), but again he had the last ball even in rallies that ended in spins to spins.
Last October, Angelakis entered the round of “16” at Feeder in Sweden. In Dusseldorf he is at “64” and his next goal is the round of “32”.
On Wednesday at 14:30 in Greece he faces the German Ricardo Walter.
Earlier, our two champions competed at the same time at noon in the third qualifier and that’s why Gionis also helped with the coaching. He sat on Angelakis’ bench and the federal coach Kostas Vatsaklis coached Sgouropoulos.
Angelakis met Sehit Souravadzoula, who is ranked number 143 in the world and was recently placed in the top eight of the WTT Feeder in Beirut. The Indian has weaknesses on defense and the 2020 Greece men’s singles champion knew he had to hit a high standard of performance to pull them off.
This he did from the start and took the lead by a margin. Souravatzoula improved his competitive face, the following sets were very close, but Angelakis had the last say in the final points and reached the emphatic 3-0 aet (11-4, 11-9, 12-10)
Also, for the third qualifying round, Sgouropoulos (now No. 228 in the world) faced the strong Park Gangheon (No. 191). With a good serve and strong attack from both sides, the left-handed Korean took control of the match early on. He led 2-0 sets, but it was clear that the Eleusinian ace could apply a lot of pressure if he got more attacks and was more efficient on his serve.
That finally showed in the third set, when at 10-6 he saved four match points and then went down in overtime.
The fourth set was also balanced initially. The Asian, however, pressed again with quality spins in difficult spots and with a short streak gained an advantage at a critical point, which he kept (5-11, 7-11, 13-11, 7-11).
In the men’s singles, Gionis went straight into the first round due to his seeding position. On Wednesday at 14:30 he starts his matches against Croatian Filip Zeliko.
In the men’s doubles, Gionis and Angelakis qualified directly to the main draw of the “16”. They compete on Wednesday and their opponents are Lam Siu Hang/Ho Kwan Kit from Hong Kong.
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
