European U13 Table Tennis Championship: The National Team will compete for positions 25-28

On the second day at the European Boys’ and Girls’ Table Tennis Championship in Bucharest and in the new B level groups, our U13 National Team failed, along with the valuable experience, to gain something substantial.

With 4-1 set defeats to Belgium and 5-0 set defeats to Italy, it is ranked third in the fourth group of stage 2 and on Friday, playing in a mini-table with the third-placed teams of the remaining three groups of the so-called B Finals, its final classification.

Also from the third day of the championship at the “Polivalenta Hall”, our internationals will also enjoy the individual competitions through a good number of matches, initially in the singles groups. After the relevant draws they learned their opponents.

In level B, the 13 teams that did not make it to the first 16 take part and were divided into four groups. One of them had four groups, the rest had three. Greece competed in the fourth group of stage 2 and faced leaders Belgium in the morning. He put up a strong fight, took the lead in the opening mixed doubles, but fell behind 4-1. Markoulakis and Michalarou did not compete in this match.

In detail, the progress of the match Belgium-Greece 4-1:

Brian Zhang/Kato Verlegier-Apostolos Vatsaklis/Aphrodite Sarikakis 0-3 (11-13, 8-11, 10-12)

Yasmin Korin-Elpida Tassiou 3-1 (11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 11-3)

Alexandr Pires-Giorgos Sassanis 3-1 (11-5, 11-6, 3-11, 11-9)

Berlegye-Sarikakis 3-2 (17-15, 11-7, 6-11, 10-12, 11-6)

Zhang-Vatsaklis 3-1 (6-11, 12-10, 11-6, 11-5)

At noon, the second match against Italy followed. The team from the neighboring country, who last year had the top two champions in Europe, Faso and Trevisan, proved to be strong and took the victory with 5-0 sets without meaning that they were not under pressure from our internationals. Sassanis and Tassiou sat on the bench with Italy.

Greece will be third in the group no matter what happens in the final match between Belgium and Italy and in stage 3 they will go into the mini table for places 25-28.

In detail, the progress of the match Greece-Italy 0-5:

Apostolos Vatsaklis/Aphrodite Sarikakis-Gabriel Deleraiko/Matilde Bouzoni 0-3 (3-11, 6-11, 5-11)

Anastasia Michalaru-Claudia Bertolini 0-3 (3-11, 11-13, 7-11)

Theofanis Markoulakis-Pietro Andreoli 1-3 (9-11, 9-11, 12-10, 4-11)

Sarikakis-Buzoni 1-3 (6-11, 7-11, 11-5, 7-11)

Vatsaklis-Deleraiko 0-3 (8-11, 11-13, 10-12)

In the next match our representative group will meet the third team of the first group. It has not yet been decided who it will be, however, Serbia, Moldova and Slovakia are participating there. The winners of the two cross-overs then play for places 25-26 of the European Championship and the losers for places 27-28.

THE DRAWINGS IN THE INDIVIDUAL COMPETITIONS

Friday morning also starts with groups. The first two athletes and the first two athletes will qualify for the main board (A Finals), while the rest will be transferred to the lower level (B Finals). The mixed doubles will have a knockout board from the start.

In singles, 22 qualifying groups were formed. Vatsaklis is in the fifth group. He is led by Azeri Onur Guluzade and also rivals Ukrainian David Drobov and Slovenian Tijan Malic.

Sassanis was drawn in the 11th group. He faces Hungarian Benjamin Vamosi (head), Azeri Shakir Gadirov and independent (ie with a Russian or Belarusian passport) Hleb Kacianovich.

Markoulakis competes in the 19th group. He finds against him the Croatian Nikola Djuric (head), the Polish Adam Stachowiak and the Kosovar Resul Smiley.

There were 20 groups in the women’s singles. Michalaru was in the third group led by Sweden’s Siri Benjegård, who is the third favorite of the games. He also meets the Turkish Buse Kocak and the Bulgarian Polina Ntseva.

Sarikaki went to the 15th group. The leader is the Swiss Ilvi Urlik and, also, opponents are the Swedish Alicia Enbom and Veranika Baranava, who competes as an independent.

Tasiou is in the 20th group. She will face the Slovak Bianca Basova, the Bulgarian Beloslava Balkanska and the Slovenian Karin Slatincek.

The mixed doubles boys-girls starts from a board of “128”. Sassani Michalaru will face the Bulgarians Dimitar Dimitrov/Kalina Stefanova in the first round on Friday. Markoulakis and Michalarou face off against Ivan Zetsau and Uliana Bairakova, who compete as independents.

Vatsaklis/Sarikakis have a “bye” in the first round and on Saturdays they will compete against Filip Nagy/Bianka Basova from Slovakia.