The new strong tests for the Greek internationals at the WTT Feeder in the Czech Republic have been completed

Havirov’s World Table Tennis Feeder tournament, which started on Sunday and will end next Wednesday, featured four of our champions, who were basically motivated by world ranking points. Yannis Sgouropoulos, Konstantinos Angelakis, Dimitra-Thomais Tsekouras and Malamatenia Papadimitriou competed in the singles and were eliminated in the qualifiers on the first day of the tournament.

Angelakis scored one victory and was defeated in the second qualifier, Sgouropoulos lost in the same round after a “bye”, while the two athletes of the women’s national team gave everything for the qualification in inconclusive matches, until they “bent” in five sets and stayed in the first qualifying round. All of them, of course, had the opportunity for new strong tests, in fact these were the last international matches before the finalization of the Greek declaration for the Pre-Olympic tournament of Europe in singles.

In the men’s singles, Angelakis (number 308 in the current rating table), started his effort in Havirov on a positive note after the positive course in Dusseldorf and the qualification to the main board of the German Feeder. In the first qualifying round he was particularly solid against the left-handed Slovakian Jakub Zelinka. He won the first set by a margin, the second in overtime and in the temporary tie he immediately found the solutions to score another victory against an athlete with a better position in the international ranking (No. 236). The sets: 11-4, 13-11, 7-11 and 11-8.

In the second qualifier there was an Asian hurdle and it was very high. Angelakis faced Hong Kong’s Ho Kwan Kit (No. 171). He lost the first set by a margin, but fought back successfully. At 6-7 in the second set, he took five points in a row to level, but in the next he received that big run from the left-handed attacker when 2-2 turned into 9-2.

In general, Kvan Kit, whom Angelakis also faced in the German Feeder doubles a few days ago, showed his great skills against the defense and was in control of the match (4-11, 11-7, 3-11, 6- 11).

Sgouropoulos (No. 228) faced Adam Zudy (No. 219) a little later, a long-time main player of the Hungarian national team. Sgouropoulos did not perform according to his true potential. He lost with a 3-0 set, as he did not use his quality serve and Zudi went through his attacks with proper tactics.

In the second set, the four-time European junior champion found himself trailing 7-0, fought back and broke but was unable to come up with anything of substance, while in the third set he took the first two points on the Hungarian’s serve, but immediately conceded a run of points and was affected psychologically (7-11, 7-11, 5-11).

In the morning, our gymnasts were the first to enter the tables for the start of the qualifying board. Papadimitriou (number 409 in the current world ranking) faced in the first round Poland’s Paulina Kryziek (No. 283), also a left-handed athlete. In the perfectly balanced game, he lost the first two sets by the smallest margin and responded with the same difficulty. In the fifth set, Krzyzek built a lead and held it (10-12, 9-11, 12-10, 11-8, 5-11).

Also, in the first qualifier, Chekoura (No. 406) met Margo Degraff (No. 259) for the second time in April. She had also competed in the qualifiers of the Feeder in Croatia with the champion from Belgium and had been defeated in a strong match. This, unfortunately, happened now.

The Greek champion led with an excellent performance and could make it 2-0 in the sets and become the favorite. However, he lost the next two sets at the limit and fell behind 2-1. Undeterred, she took the lead in the fourth set and leveled, but in the decisive fourth set, Degraff capitalized on her strong start (11-4, 10-12, 9-11, 11-5, 3-11).