Manolopoulos is eighth in the Youth Contender of Sarajevo in Under 19

With two excellent performances, Stathis Manolopoulos won first place in the qualifying group of his age category and automatically found himself in the top eight of the World Table Tennis Youth Contender of Bosnia/Herzegovina. Not only did he make it into the ’16’ table, but he became the fourth favorite after topping his respective group and, as the final stage athletes are 12, he went through with a ‘bye’ to the ‘8’.

The knockouts take place on Wednesday on the final day of the tournament and Manolopoulos takes on the challenge of going even further.

Also, in Under 19, the 16-year-old Archangelos Gionis completed his attempt in the groups and, of course, he keeps the valuable experience in his first participation in the specific institution of the International Table Tennis Federation.

Manolopoulos, who had “warmed up” on Monday with the mixed doubles, was in the fourth group and first faced Belgian leader Per Gevers. He took the first two sets in overtime and, now having the psychological advantage, reached the emphatic 3-0 set (12-10, 13-11, 11-5).

In the afternoon, the match with Dario Pejic was decisive for the first place, as the Bosnian had also prevailed in the opening match of Gevers, who was eventually ruled out. The current champion of Greece in the junior doubles was very stable and took another victory in three sets (11-7, 11-7, 11-6).

The qualifying groups of the category were six and the first two athletes from each advanced to the knockouts, i.e. 12. Thanks to his first place, Manolopoulos became the fourth favorite and, thus, on the board of “16” he acquired the privilege of one of the total of four “byes”.

On Wednesday he is chasing an even higher place, however he already equaled the performance at the Youth Contender in Turkey earlier this year, when he placed 5-8 in the Under 19. In the quarter-finals, he will meet the winner of the match Benjamin Ziadic (Bosnia/ Herzegovina)-Sohan Gill (France).

Gionis participated in the sixth group. He stayed in fourth place, but gave games for useful conclusions. First, he met Polish head Artur Gromek and was defeated 3-0 sets (7-11, 7-11, 5-11).

In the second match he lost with the same score to the Serbian Dimitre Pavlovic (16-18, 1-11, 4-11) and in the third with a 3-0 set to the Bosnian Benjamin Ziadic (6-11, 8-11, 2- 11).

* With Lucia Cordero of Guatemala, number 314 in the current world ranking, Malamatenia Papadimitriou was drawn in the first round of the Swedish WTT Feeder. The tournament is underway in Halmstad and the women’s singles main draw starts on Wednesday from the round of 64. Papadimitriou competes at 12:10 Greece and, if she wins, she will meet the Chinese Su Yi at “32”