Katerina Toliou brought another qualification to the main board of the international tournament in the Feeder category for herself and the country’s women’s table tennis. In the decisive 2nd qualifying round of the Portuguese Feeder, which takes place in Vila Nova de Gaia, she defeated Eugenia Sastre from Spain in the evening with 3-1 sets and passed to the “64” of the singles. Elisabeth Terpou struggled for the same step at the same time, ahead of the French Agath Avezou, but in the end she was defeated 3-1 in a set to be eliminated from the next round. Both our internationals started their campaign with a win yesterday, Saturday 23/11. Toliou is now chasing the best possible placement and has learned her next opponent after the new draw. On Monday 25/11, in the 1st round, she faces Ryu Hana from Korea, number 36 in the tournament. At 13:45 Greek time the match takes place, at table 5.
At the top of the knockouts Toliou (number 16 in the seeding of the qualifiers) met the very remarkable young Sastre (No. 21) theoretically having the first say. Her task, however, quickly became difficult, as at 7-5 in the 1st set she lost six points in a row. In the 2nd set he got a very good pace and with an outburst after 3-5 he created a difference and kept it. She was even more efficient in the 3rd, “obliging” the opponent to make several mistakes with her defense and relatively easily took the lead in the sets. The 4th set was a draw. The leading Greek found herself behind 7-5, but again with consistency in defense and changes in service or tactics at the right moments she immediately turned the situation around and reached the final 3-1 (7-11, 11-6, 11-3, 11 -8).
At the base of this table, Terpou (number 17 in the qualifiers) had a decisive match against Avezou (No. 11). The 18-year-old French player plays defense and the Greece international was called upon to bring out her given skills against this style of play. He started perfectly by winning the 1st set by a margin. But then, she lost stability in attack, while Avezou, who naturally improved her performance, kept the ball on the table a lot. In both the 2nd and 3rd set, the Frenchwoman made a strong start, using the rubber combo and this was decisive. Terpou tried to manage the psychological part as well and came back strongly in the next set. She led 6-5, but saw her opponent trail 7-6 and took a timeout. He made the final effort, until he fell in the details (11-5, 4-11, 4-11, 9-11).
It should be noted that these were the first matches for Tolios and Terpou against the specific opponents in international tournaments. Avezu in 2024 won the gold medal in the Under 19 category in another part of Portugal, at the WTT Youth Contender in Vila Real.
In six tables the Portuguese Feeder will continue. At least until today the WTT youtube channel reported live streaming for tables 1 to 4.
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