On Monday, they faced each other on foreign soil and showed again why Greek table tennis has long since gained recognition and admiration in major European club championships.
The reason for Yiannis Sgouropoulos and Konstantinos Angelakis, who competed with their teams in the Polish League and gave an impressive “show”, in a way, to the fans. The first with the jersey of Gliwice, the second with Bialystok and finally Sgouropoulos to prevail both individually and with his team.
Moreover, the leading Greek ambassador, Panagiotis Gionis, has been in Poland since Tuesday, in order to make his start this year against Bogoria Grodzisk on Thursday.
In two other strong European countries in the sport, meanwhile, three members of our National Teams have made their first appearances in the new season. Giorgos Konstantinopoulos and Tasos Riniotis in the second national men’s division of Sweden with the same club, Angbi SK, and Malamatenia Papadimitriou in the corresponding A2 women’s division of Italy with ASD Molfetta.
At the European Championships, Angelakis and Sgouropoulos achieved their main goals in men’s singles by entering the main draw, while the former also placed in the 9-16 doubles positions with Slovakian Wang Yang.
After the end of the competition in Leeds they had action in the Lotto Superliga of Poland with SBR Bialystok welcoming KTS Gliwice for the fourth matchday. Today’s first Balkan champion of men’s singles on one side and the four-time European champion of the same event in teenagers and young men on the other side met in the third match in a row and with the score being 2-0 sets for Gliwce.
They offered a match full of spectacle and agony, until Sgouropoulos prevailed 3-2 and with the fifth set ending in his favor, in which case he was the first to reach six points according to the system of the Polish federation.
The progress, as stated on the PZTS website, with Angelakis first: 11-8, 9-11, 5-11, 11-2 and 1-6.
In the same league, Bogoria has already played three matches without Gionis and leads with the absolute number of victories and 9 points. In her new game she faces Polonia Bitom.
In Sweden, two of our internationals are competing this year in the second men’s national division, the so-called Superettan. At the moment, there have been four matches and Tasos Riniotis and Giorgos Konstantinopoulos made their debut with Angbi SK.
In the first two days of the championship, only Riniotis was present. In the home 6-3 set against Lakebi, he had two individual victories and prevailed in the doubles as well. In the 6-0 defeat by Costa SK, again at home, he conceded his only individual game.
On the second weekend, in mid-October, only G. Konstantinopoulos competed with Angbi. In the away victory against Eskilstuna with 6-4 he made his debut in Sweden. He played two singles matches and one doubles and had only wins. In his team’s 6-4 defeat by Vasteras, also as a guest, the captain of the men’s national team had two more wins in singles and lost in doubles.
Angbi is in sixth place in the ranking with 4 points.
Malamatenia Papadimitriou is also living a new experience in Italy. It works with ASD Molfetta, which belongs to the second national women’s division. She is in the fourth group, she has played her first two games this year and the Greek champion was present. In the first game, her team lost 4-2 sets away from Roma Gap School. Papadimitriou recorded one win and one loss.
Molfetta then drew 3-3 sets as hosts with Sassari. Papadimitriou prevailed in both her individual games. The team of the Greek champion is currently in fifth place with 1 point.
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