On Wednesday afternoon, Giorgos Stamatouros and in the evening of the same day, Yiannis Sgouropoulos emerged victorious from tough matches for the second round of men’s singles and qualified for the first 16 of the World Table Tennis Feeder Prishtina 2024.
They showed in good form, Sgouropoulos in his second World Federation Open appearance this season, Stamatouros in his first, and they continue on Thursday with determination for higher places.
He needed a big turnaround from 0-2 to overcome a Korean obstacle, but he turned the situation around after the first set against a very notable European athlete. The two compete together on Thursday in the men’s doubles knockouts.
At the start of Sport Hall 1 Tetori our champions avoided the round of 64 with a bye. A few hours later, Stamatouros started. He was well prepared for the lopsided encounter with the Slovenian Peter Hribar (number 14 in the seeding of the event) and celebrated the victory with a 3-1 set.
In the first set, our Piraeus champion (No. 30) had problems in reception and found himself behind in the score. However, he immediately improved the first ball and his attack, achieved the equalizer and immediately prevailed in the details of the crucial third set. He saved set bowls and with two very good attempts took the lead in overtime.
Balance existed until the middle of the fourth set, when Stamatouros took both points on the left-handed opponent’s serve at 5-5 and managed the advantage until the end (5-11, 11-6, 12-10, 11-7 ).
In the third round, he gives a strong competitive test against the Croatian Andrej Gatsina (14:55), who in the very recent past wore the shirt of Panathinaikos and Olympiakos.
On Wednesday night, Sgouropoulos (No. 10 in the tournament) entered the table and given the facts, he would have a difficult task with the Korean Kwak Yoo Bin (No. 29). In the first sets, he fell behind only in the most critical points, as a result of which the left-handed opponent passed his attacks and took a 2-0 lead. The continuation, however, belonged to the four-time European champion of the young categories. He raised his performance to high standards and everything went great for him in control, attack and serve.
At the same time, he improved his reception and, after a breakaway, took a 7-3 lead in the third set, he never lost control of the match again. It is indicative that he won all the sets with some margin and in the fifth and decisive set he reached 8-2 to essentially secure his victory (8-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-7).
Kwak Yu had an earlier match in the first round and eliminated compatriot Cho Kijeong in 3-1 sets. In the round of 16, he will meet the Japanese Mizuki Oikawa at noon on Thursday (14:55).
Today the table of the “16” in the men’s doubles also began, Sgouropoulos/Stamatouros were simply inactive because they are without a match in the eight. On Thursday at 13:10 they will face the second favourites, the Koreans Ho Jeongmun/Kim Minwoo.
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