Two more victories and Sgouropoulos plays for the qualification in the main board at the Contender of Doha

In the men’s table tennis category, Giannis Sgouropoulos is constantly evolving and results like the ones he brings in the last two days at the strong World Table Tennis Contender in Qatar give him points in the effort to establish himself as a world-class athlete.

Sgouropoulos scored two more difficult victories in Doha in the simple qualifiers and has reached the decisive fourth round to qualify for the main board.

In the “64” he defeated with the impressive 3-0 set the Italian Stoyanov, who is several places higher than him in the world ranking, and in the “32” with 3-2 sets and his well-known στα superiority in the marginal matches the Serb Levajac, who in the summer he took part in the Tokyo Olympics.

On Sunday, he has a big challenge, claiming the qualification in the first round of the singles against the Chinese Yuan Lisen.

Also, in the Contender of Doha, George Stamatouros had advanced to a qualifying round on Friday, made a good effort in the “64”, but was normally eliminated with a 3-0 set by the strong Frenchman Akuzou.

On Saturday afternoon, Sgouropoulos first reserved another strong blow to the Italian mission. After Leonardo Muti in the first qualifying round he eliminated with 3-0 sets and Niagol Stoyanov in the second.

More experienced than his compatriot and participating in many top events, Stoyanov is in an honorable 100th place in the world rankings. He may not show great international success in his career, but he has several notable placements, such as the semifinals in the singles at the World Tour of Belgium in 2014.

The current European Under 21 champion (No. 156) has beaten him again in the past, but now he was even stronger and really did not leave him much room for reaction. It was imposed with 11-8, 11-7 and 11-4 and was presented in very good condition.

Dimitri Levajac was his opponent in the “32” of the qualifiers early in the evening of the same day. The Serb is significantly behind in the world rankings (No. 336), but this does not correspond to his value, which he has shown in recent years through many big appointments, culminating in his participation in Tokyo.

Sgouropoulos gained control from the beginning and made it 1-0. In the second set he was back 6-3 and “turned” it. In the third set, he lost some of his rhythm and the Serb increased his performance to easily reduce the score.

At that point, the image of the match had changed, with Levajac improving the reception and finding solutions in the attack. He took the lead in the fourth set, kept it and equalized.

The qualifying games are done with the system of the best of five sets, this time Sgouropoulos did not chase his… favorite 4-3, but even with this system he had no… difficulty to show his proverbial composure and positive thinking.

In the decisive fifth set he was as calm and determined as if he was just starting the match, with a mind and excellent tactics he immediately created a safety lead reaching… 7-0 and was led safely to victory and qualification (11-6, 11-8, 6-11, 7-11, 11-2).

The Eleusinian ace has reached the final round of the “16” with a total of three victories. The eight athletes who will prevail on Sunday in the same number of matches, will frame the 24 favorites that are directly on the main board of “32”.

Sgouropoulos has already secured a scoring benefit with his results and against Juan Lissen he will give everything for the qualification, which based on the degree of difficulty of the Open, will be an individual distinction.

The Chinese is 21 years old and still behind in the rankings. In Qatar, however, he leaves very good writing samples and has made victories that show his dynamics, such as against the two-time European champion of the ordinary youth, the French Alexander Cassen (3-1 set).

Also, in Doha and in the same match, George Stamatouros (No. 589) made his effort against the very strong Frenchman Kan Akuzou (No. 76), but lost with a 3-0 set and was eliminated in the second qualifying round of the tournament.

In the first set, last year’s Greek champion of the men’s singles was completely competitive, in fact he covered a three-point handicap and claimed the lead in overtime. In the next two sets, Akuzu dominated (10-12, 5-11, 7-11).

The 25-year-old Frenchman, who is also vying for the top spot, has won, among other distinctions, the bronze medal with the French national team at the 2015 World Junior Championships, the first place in the European Top 10 Children in 2012 and the French men’s singles championship. in 2019.