First in Sarajevo, Stathis Manolopoulos placed 5-8 in the Under 19 category at the Bosnia/Herzegovina WTT Youth Contender. He tried to reach the top four for the first time in a tournament of this institution, but he was stopped by a strong athlete from France.
In Halmstad and the Swedish WTT Feeder, Malamatenia Papadimitriou was eliminated in the first round of the women’s singles. She had an unequivocal match with an athlete from Guatemala, she won in four sets and was ranked 33-48.
In Sarajevo, the 19-year-old Manolopoulos managed to enter the top eight of his category on Tuesday when he took the lead with two wins in the fourth group and then, on the table of “16”, he had one of the four “byes”.
He started the tournament as the number 9 seed, went into the knockouts as fourth favorite and on Wednesday afternoon he faced Sohan Gill, who was the number 8 seed. against the defense.
Our champion lost the balanced first set and then saw his opponent improve his performance further for the final 3-0 set (8-11, 5-11, 4-11).
We remind you that as a representative of a leading country in the sport, he was also excluded in July in the “32” stage at the European Youth Championship in Sweden.
In 2024, he was also placed 5-8 in the Youth Contender of Turkey, while through his course in the capital of Bosnia/Herzegovina he managed to realize the goal of a good harvest of points for the world ranking.
In Halmstad, Papadimitriou, number 401 in the current world ranking, had a “bye” in the only qualifying round of the women’s singles and today she competed on the board of “64”. Her opponent was Lucia Cordero from Guatemala (No. 314 in the world), who this year entered the first 16 of the Pan American Women’s Cup.
It was a tough battle, but the Greek champion fell behind at the crucial points, resulting in a 3-1 set loss (8-11, 7-11, 11-7, 9-11).
In the fourth Feeder, in which she participated since August, the gymnasts on the board were 48, therefore Papadimitriou was placed in positions 33-48.
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