With the brilliance of Meregord, the premiere in A1 men’s table tennis

Truls Meregord, who just last August impressed in Paris with the silver medals in the men’s singles and team and is ranked number 10 in the world, came for his first games in Greece and Olympiakos. The biggest of the stars to appear in this year’s A1 men’s table tennis division, European team champion and world runner-up in men’s singles, caught the eye in his first games and provided a rich spectacle in the championship that started on Saturday at SEF.

With their presence, two more foreigners of known value made news. The newly acquired from AEK, Adam Zudi, because he is an active international with good results from the traditionally very strong in the sport, Hungary, and the Portuguese, three-time European champion of the big division, Joao Monteiro, who wears the jersey of Panathinaikos this year from four years of cooperation with Olympiakos.

In the competitive events, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Tataula for men and Sarises Florinas for women achieved two victories at the start. On an individual level, the victory of Tasos Riniotis with a reversal from 0-2 sets against Zoudi in the Olympiakos-AEK match was great, just as it is noteworthy that Giorgos Stamatouros, also of Piraeus, was under a lot of pressure from the 19-year-old Stathis Manolopoulos of Pera Athens and he defeated him with 3-2 sets and a marginal difference at the end.

In the first two matches of the A1 men’s division, there were no unexpected results and suspense was only hidden by the ambiguous match between AO Tataula and Aris Nikias. It reached the double and the valuable victory with 4-3 was won by Tataula in a three-hour “thriller”.

The champion Olympiacos and the runner-up Panathinaikos, who did not bring the world runner-up in men’s doubles, Alvaro Robles, to Athens, advanced with two easy victories.

In detail, the match Aris Nikias – Tataula 3-4:

Michal Obeslo – Yiannis Boskovics 3-0 (12-10, 11-4, 11-5)

Gerasimos Petris – Dimitris Papadimitriou 1-3 (8-11, 2-11, 11-3, 13-15)

Ilias Michaelidis – Gerasimos Hatzilygeroudis 3-1 (9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 13-11)

Obeslo – Papadimitriou 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-8)

Michaelidis – Boskovics 1-3 (5-11, 11-4, 7-11, 5-11)

Petris – Hatzilygeroudis 0-3 (10-12, 5-11, 9-11)

Obeslo/Michailidis – Papadimitriou/Hatzilygeroudis 1-3 (7-11, 11-7, 10-12, 12-14)

Upon his departure, Meregord also made his first statements in Greece, where he came for the first time for the sport, but has taken a two-year vacation: “I really like Greece as a country and I am friends with Yannis Sgouropoulos, who he told me various things about the league. I met good conditions, a good level of competition and I am happy to be here”, he emphasized.

THE BEYOND THE WIN OF THE DAY IN A1 WOMEN’S, 4-1 PANATHINAICOS

The A1 women’s championship also started with two matches, just not all the matches were held at the Faleri stadium and there was activity in Florina as well. All three matches of the program took place in the city’s municipal gymnasium, with the local Sarises starting with two wins against HANTH and ASEA Kavala.

The victory of the day was achieved by AS Pera. The team from Palaio Faliro, which last year took fourth place, beat Greece’s runner-up, Panathinaikos, with a 4-1 set, and showed from the start that it raised higher demands. Voulgara Yovkova and Elisabeth Terpou have new faces, while, on the other side, Gerasimatou played the first matches after her return to Panathinaikos.

In detail, the progress of the match Panathinaikos – Pera 1-4:

Katerina Toliou – Elizabeth Terpou 3-1 (11-8, 9-11, 11-4, 11-9)

Konstantina Paridis – Maria Yovkova 0-3 (8-11, 9-11, 8-11)

Ioanna Gerasimatou – Monica Knezevic 2-3 (12-10, 9-11, 12-10, 9-11, 8-11)

Toliou – Iovkova 1-3 (5-11, 11-8, 8-11, 1-11)

Gerasimato – Terpou 1-3 (11-7, 8-11, 9-11, 7-11)

Olympiacos was under no pressure for the first win of the season, while AEK also defeated newcomer Aris 2006 with a 4-0 set.

In Florina, the young Tsvetelina Georgieva of HANTH defeated Chinese origin Liu Judith with 3-2 sets, but the Sarises reached the 4-1 set. In the course of the match, the young internationals, Chrysi Fotiadou-Stella Tzaridou, also had a strong fight, with the former prevailing 3-2. Roumana Toma made her Sarises debut and went undefeated.

In summary, Saturday’s results in the major categories:

In men’s A1:

Aris Nikias – AEK 0-4

AO Tataula – ASEA Kavala 4-0

Panathinaikos – OEA Thessaloniki 4-0

Pera Athens – Olympiacos SFP 0-4

OEA Thessaloniki – Pera Athens 0-4

Olympiacos SFP – AEK 4-0

Panathinaikos AO – ASEA Kavala 4-0

Aris Nikias – AO Tataula 3-4

In the women’s A1 at SEF:

AEK – AO Aris 2006 4-0

Panathinaikos – Pera Athens 1-4

Olympiacos – Pera Athens 4-0

AO Aris 2006 – Panathinaikos 0-4

In the women’s A1 in Florina:

HAN Thessaloniki – Sarises Florina 1-4

ASEA Kavala – HAN Thessaloniki 2-4

ASEA Kavala – ASEA Sarises Florina 0-4