In the Finnish Table Tennis International Open matches that are hosted in Kisikalio and will last until next Sunday, Alexandros Madesis and Stathis Manolopoulos advanced with a total of three wins until the second round and were ranked 9-16.
To begin with, they had dominated their qualifying groups and then pulled through with a hard-fought but remarkable win on the board. Also, in the Under 21 age category, Giorgos Kosmas in the boys, Malamatenia Papadimitriou and Chrissi Fotiadou in the women were eliminated in the group phase.
The continuation is given from Friday with the simple of the big category. The only coach in the Greek team is Konstantinos Kostopoulos.
In men, 19 qualifying groups were created. The same number of winners went through to the knockout phase, while 13 athletes from the first seeding positions were directly there.
Manolopoulos entered the 14th group at the head and took the lead with two wins. Overcame Estonian Andrei Maltizov 3-1 sets (11-5, 6-11, 12-10, 12-10) and Sweden’s Theo Alvendal 3-0 sets (11-5, 11-8, 11-6) .
Madesis was also first favorite in the 17th group and was at the top. First, he defeated the Maltese James Vella with 3-0 sets (11-6, 11-9, 11-3) and then the Swedish Daniel Lindso with 3-1 sets (11-6, 11-6, 9-11 , 11-8).
Kosmas was the leader in the 15th group, but remained in third place with two losses. He lost 3-0 sets to the Swedish Dennis Larsson (5-11, 5-11, 8-11) and 3-1 sets to the Luxembourgian Gene Vatz (9-11, 3-11, 11-8, 10-12 ).
On the board of “32”, the defensive style Manolopoulos (number 27 in the category of the tournament) had a derby with the Dane Oliver Berdsen, number 6 in the favorites. He led with 2-0 sets, accepted the tie in two marginal sets, but in the end took that fifth set with the smallest difference (11-7, 11-4, 13-15, 9-11, 13-11).
In the round of 16, he had a strong matchup with Norwegian Sebastian Flaaten, who as number 12 had also entered the board directly. He didn’t start well, he equalized immediately, until he lost with 3-1 sets (5-11, 11-8, 8-11, 13-15).
Madesis (No. 30) had a very good performance in the first round as well. He overcame Latvia’s Daniels Kogans, who was fourth favorite in the Young Men’s, 3-1. In the fourth set he made a small reversal to shape the final score (11-7, 9-11, 11-6, 12-10).
In the second round, the champion of Greece in the singles category had a new very difficult task against Luxembourg’s Mael Van Dessel who had emerged as the winner in another group. He narrowly lost the first sets and then was psychologically affected for the final 3-0 set (9-11, 10-12, 2-11).
For women, 12 qualifying groups were formed. Only the winners of these advanced to the table of “16”, while the first four favorites qualified directly.
Papadimitriou, who was seventh favorite in the Under 21, was placed at the head of the third group. He had one win and one loss and was eliminated in second place. First, she defeated Groiladeja Dahl Gilok with 3-0 sets (11-7, 11-6, 11-4) and then lost with the same score to Belgium’s Julie Van Hovaert (5-11, 8-11, 5-11 ).
Fotiadou participated in the fourth group. She was ranked third, losing 3-0 sets to the leader, England’s Mary Baldwin (9-11, 5-11, 6-11) and 3-1 to Spain’s Eugenia Sastre (3-11, 6-11, 11-7 , 2-11).
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