Pre-Paralympic tournament: Hadzikyriakos is close to qualifying for the knockout stage

On the opening day at the World Pre-Paralympic Table Tennis Tournament in Pattaya, Thailand, Marios Hatzikyriakos achieved a win and a loss in the class 6 standings and is close to getting on the scoreboard and by extension further claiming qualification for the Paralympic Games 2024.

On Thursday, he prevailed in five sets of a very balanced match and is favorite to win on Friday as well and qualify as second from the fourth group. For the continuation, of course, the fact that only the first of each class qualifies in Paris is enough to understand the… mountain that the athletes have in front of them.

In class 3 of wheelchair athletes, Evanthia-Irini Bournia made a good effort in her Pre-Paralympic debut, but suffered defeat. Anyway, things had automatically become more difficult for her since last year when she was evaluated in the biggest category, but in the first group she also meets excellent athletes from Europe and Asia. Her hopes of qualifying are mathematical, but of course she always strives for the best.

In the men’s Class 6, Hadzikyriakos headed the group as fourth favorite. In his first game, he had serious difficulties with Alexander Esaulov’s “tooth” and especially with his serve. After the first set, he improved and pushed hard, but lost 3-1 sets (3-11, 6-11, 11-2, 9-11). Esaulov is registered in Thailand as independent under the provisions for Russian or Belarusian passport holders.

THE “THRILLER” OF HATZIKYRIAKO

In the second matchday, our 2021 Paralympic champion had a crucial match with the German Benedict Miller who came from the second seeding series. The victory was necessary and it finally came with 3-2 sets after a lot of hard work and sweat. The decisive fifth set saw incredible variation. At the initial 1-2, Hatzikyriakos took seven points in a row and reached 8-2.

The stubborn German fought back and leveled with six consecutive points at 8-8. In the most difficult moment, however, the European team runner-up in 2019 did not lose positive thinking and composure and found solutions with the serve and backhand (he relied on that spin).

And earlier there was another remarkable moment. That on the match point of the fourth set at 11-10 he turned for a strong forehand after a mediocre reception and Miller, looking overwhelmed, simply set the racket correctly and turned the ball. Hatzikyriakos was not daunted, however, and played calmly from the beginning of the fifth set (11-8, 11-8, 7-11, 11-13, 11-8)

After two matches he has 3 points and on Friday at 10:10 Greek time he faces Samuel William Altschuler. The American is fourth in the group with 2 points. He lost today 3-0 sets first to Miller and then to Esaulov. The first two athletes from the four groups qualify for the board.

THE BOURNIA PREMIERE

In women’s wheelchair class 3 there are two groups. Bournia competes in the first, which is of three athletes, while the other has four athletes. In her first match, the young “bronze” world and European champion met the first favorite, Turkala Hatice Duman. After the “numb” start, she became completely competitive, but the leader of the group had one more ball at the critical points (1-11, 7-11, 8-11).

The 3-0 set loss, combined with the negative result that came later for Duman against China’s Zhonghui Yang, “pale” the plans for qualification. Because the Asian woman prevailed with a 3-0 set, which means that against her on Friday, Bournia needs a victory and with a wide score to favor a three-way tie.

Predominance with 3-1 e.g. it leads her to a negative coefficient of -1 from the matches between the three athletes and to the elimination. In a new 3-0, the total points of the athletes will count for the qualification to the semi-finals of the class. In any case, Bournia is invited to play as freely as possible and to chase the best. On Friday at 09:00 Greek time the match against Zhang.