European Table Tennis Championship Qualifiers: Finland beat 3-1 to lead group unbeaten

With first place secured from Wednesday and with a clear advantage over Finland, the Women’s National Table Tennis Team defeated Finland 3-1 in sets to advance undefeated to the next stage of the tournament.

The news of the match was the debut of Chrysis Fotiadou with the representative group. The young champion from Florina enjoyed this special day and gave her best, regardless of whether she was down in all three sets.

From Friday, the next phase foresees four groups of three teams. The countries that finish first in these groups will qualify for the European Championship. The runners-up of the groups play two play-off matches against each other for the last two tickets to Croatia.

With Greece taking B in the team setup, Chryssi Fotiadou entered the field first. She faced Maria Girlea and naturally had the stress of her “maiden” appearance with the Women’s National Team. Thus, she could not show stability against the first Finnish woman and lost 3-0. In the third set, she improved her performance, she also had a set bowl, she just happened to bend in overtime.

Katerina Toliou continued from the team’s 1st position and defeated Alexandra Titievskaya with a 3-1 set. He actually cruised to the win easily as he had a big lead, he just… sped up in the third set.

In the next game, Ioanna Gerasimatou put our national team in front of the score. Senior Mia Kellow easily reached the 3-0 set, having great stability and very difficult balls for the opponent, with the combina-rubbers.

In the fourth individual match, Toliou was ready to shape the final score. She was pushed in the first set when Maria Girlea leveled at 8-10, but took the lead.

Afterwards, her task became easier and she prevailed 3-0 against an athlete who, although she is of a good level, had no fluency against the defense.

Christos Lamis left Malamatenia Papadimitriou out of the trio.

In detail, the evolution of the match Finland – Greece 1-3:

Maria Girlea – Chrysi Fotiadou 3-0 (11-4, 11-7, 16-14)

Alexandra Titievskaya – Katerina Toliou 1-3 (3-11, 1-11, 11-5, 4-11)

Mia Kellow – Ioanna Gerasimatou 0–3 (1-11, 5-11, 3-11)

Girlea – Toliou 0-3 (10-12, 5-11, 8-11)

In the other match of the third round, Moldova defeated Finland 3-1, but both advanced to the last 12.

THE FINAL SCORE OF THE 1ST GROUP:

1. Greece 6

2. Moldova 5

3. Norway 4

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4. Finland 3