Yiannis Sgouropoulos and Giorgos Stamatouros placed 9-16 in men’s singles and 5-8 in men’s doubles at the World Table Tennis Feeder 2024 in Kosovo, losing to athletes who were very high in the seeding of the tournament. However, they registered a positive presence because they achieved their first goal in the singles with difficult victories, on Thursday they chased up to one more point and in between they lost in five sets the opportunity to enter the top four of the doubles.
On the second day of action at Sport Hall 1 Tetori our champions first had the knockout encounter in the doubles. They had a bye in the round of 8 and at the bottom of the table they faced the second favourites, the Koreans Ho Jeongmun/Kim Minwoo. They got off to a great start, their service in general and their combined attacking play paid off big in the first three sets and they led 1-0 and 2-1.
The continuation, however, was not similar. Sgouropoulos and Stamatouros lost their rhythm, at the same time the Asians improved their performance and changed their tactics to reach the elimination with 3-2 sets (11-4, 7-11, 11-2, 6-11, 3 -11).
In the round of 16 of the men’s singles, the flow of matches allowed the Stamatouros match to start earlier than planned. The Greek champion of the competition in 2021 (number 30 in the tournament) was faced with Andrei Gatsina (No. 4), well known to the Greek public. Last year, the Croatian played for Olympiakos and in the 2021-2022 period, for the playoff games, for Panathinaikos.
Stamatouros tried his best without pressure, until he lost 3-0 sets. In the second set he could have equalized, at 8-8 he had the serves, but he lost three points in a row (5-11, 8-11, 5-11).
A few minutes later, Sgouropoulos (No. 10) also joined the table for the round of 16. He faced the fifth favorite, Japan’s Mizuki Oikawa, a very aggressive and fast athlete. He was eliminated in 3-0 sets, but was competitive until the end.
The four-time European junior champion pressed from the start with a quality serve and many technical balls, he just didn’t capitalize on his opportunities. In the third set he led 9-7, in the first he was at 9-9 and broke at the limit (9-11, 6-11, 10-12).
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