A tangible result for a productive first day of singles at the European Table Tennis Championships in Linz, Austria, is that with an excellent performance and two wins, Yannis Sgouropoulos secured the top spot in his group.
Constantinos Angelakis achieved a great victory to follow in the exact same steps against the Under 21 doubles European champion and on Wednesday the first place in the group seems to depend basically on his own hands.
Giorgos Stamatouros is also strong, who was “bent” in overtime of the fifth set by another European champion of the Young men’s doubles, but hopes for second place.
The top two athletes from each group go to a qualifying round for main draw qualification and there is no direct qualification for the winners.
In the women’s singles, Katerina Toliou and Elisabeth Terpou were flawless at the start. With a consistently good performance, they got the two points and can go directly on the scoreboard if they reach first place in their groups on Wednesday.
Malamatenia Papadimitriou, which also ends the group on Wednesday, lost in its premiere, but has not lost the chances of entering the knockouts. There is also another opportunity for the runners-up of the groups to qualify with a preliminary knockout match.
In the men’s singles, Sgouropoulos (number 55 in the championship seeding) was the head of the 23rd group and confirmed his role. Initially, he defeated Iceland’s Matias Por-Sandholt (No. 113) with a 3-0 set (11-6, 11-7, 11-3). At noon he had a high obstacle in front of him, in particular the Croatian Leon Benko (No. 73), who in the summer took the bronze medal in the singles of the European Championships.
The four-time European champion of the youth categories lost the first set and found himself behind 8-6 in the second set as well. With a burst, however, he won five points in a row to equalize at 1-1 and then stabilized his performance and reached the decisive victory (9-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-6).
With 4 points he secured the first place, no matter what happens in the third race on Wednesday and this gives him the theoretical advantage that in the only qualifier he will be drawn with an athlete who has taken the second place in the group.
Angelakis (No. 84) had a match on Tuesday and made a big stride for the first place in the 16th group of singles. On his first day at the European Singles Championship, the Balkan men’s singles gold medalist scored a great 3-2 set win against Hungarian top seed Saba Andras (No. 48), and on Wednesday he looks to complete the preliminary stage with one more victory and the top.
With an excellent performance, Angelakis won the first two sets by a margin (11-5, 11-3). In the normal rise of Magyaros, he accepted the draw (7-11, 10-12), but he also responded wonderfully in the soul-destroying fifth set to reach the final victory with 11-9. On Wednesday, the Greek defender plays his second game in the group against Serbian Pero Tepic.
In the 14th group, Stamatouros (No 110) was initially faced with leader Adrien Rasenfosse, who was also the Under 21 European doubles champion, a year before Andras, in 2021. The Piraeus ace made demands from the start and took precedence. He fell behind a bit in the next set and found himself 2-1 down, but again became very efficient and finally “bent” in five sets and in the details (11-5, 6-11, 3-11, 11-7, 11-13) .
On Wednesday, Stamatouros will play the decisive match for the second place with the Slovak Alexander Valuk.
In women’s singles, the Greek trio each had one match on the opening day of the European Championship. Elisavet Terpou (number 76 in the event) and Katerina Toliou (No. 72) competed in the afternoon and marked a very positive start.
Terpu premiered in the seventh group against the Italian Miriam Carnovale (No. 85). In the crucial third set, he prevailed in overtime and, with an even stronger mentality afterwards, reached the final 3-1 set (11-3, 7-11, 12-10, 11-7).
On Wednesday, in the decisive third match, he faces head coach Raquel More. With the athlete from Switzerland (No. 39) she had a big match in 2023 at the WTT Feeder in the Czech Republic and lost in the details with 3-2 sets.
Toliou justified the predictions with a solid defense in the first game of the ninth group. She defeated the Serb Reka Bezeg (No. 89) with 3-1 sets and took a step to reach another qualification on the European championship board (11-7 11-7, 4-11, 11-7).
The degree of difficulty will be greater on Wednesday against the leader Lea Rakovacs (No 41). With the exception of the last few years, the “golden” women’s singles Balkan champion has a significant history of matches in international competitions with the Croatian and shows 3 wins and 2 losses.
In the second matchday of the group, Bezeg and Rakovac won 3-1 sets, which means that Serva is ranked third and is out of contention for qualifying on the board.
Later in the afternoon, Malamatenia Papadimitriou (No. 70) played her first game for the tenth group. She faced the Danish Emma Clement (No. 92), was ahead in the score, but was eventually defeated with 3-1 sets in a “close” match (12-10, 6-11, 8-11, 8-11).
On Wednesday, she faces the lead Serva and also left-handed Sabina Sourgian (No. 42). The 20-year-old Greek Junior Women’s singles champion will need a small lead to win, but will clearly look to play loose and get as much as she can.
The schedule for our next international matches in the groups, on Wednesday 16/10 Greek time:
Terpu – More (Switzerland) at 11:30 table 7
Toliu – Rakovac (Croatia) at 11:30 table 9
Papadimitriou – Surgian (Serbia) at 11:30 table 10
Stamatouros – Valuk (Slovakia) at 13:50 table 4
Angelakis – Tepic (Serbia) at 13:50 table 6
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
