The Greek presence at the European Bratislava Table Tennis Championship ended with our internationals reaching the second round of the double mixed mixed and ranked at 17-32. With Alexander Madessi/Malamates Papadimitriou in one twin and Golden Fotiadou with Finnish Alexx Rasanen on the other.
In the doubles of men and women, immediate exclusions came. Papadimitriou holds her very honorable fourth consecutive participation in the institution in the closure of her presence in young women.
Madessi had the normal difficulties in his debut and next year he will try to be present again.
Fotiadou only benefits from the fact that, coming from the positions of the alternates, she lived the unique experience in her last year in the category.
In the double mixed, a ’64’ board was created. From position 22 of the seeding of the race, Madessi/Papadimitriou faced No. 48, Matthias Sandolt/Anzali Singh (Iceland/Ireland). They lost the first set, but quickly took control and prevailed with a 3-1 set (9-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-5).
In the “32”, he was an underdog against Romanians Andrei Istrate/Bianca Mai-Rosu (No. 7) and were unable to threaten. In the final 3-0 the sets were 4-11, 7-11 and 5-11.
Fotiadou and Finnish Alexx Rasanen (No. 41) were immediately performing, even though they worked for the first time. They had a difficult mission to Ms Van Ust/Alessia Sofia Sferlea (Netherlands/Romania) and reached a great 3-2 win. They preceded 2-0, accepted the equalizer and, in the end, prevailed with the minimum difference (14-12, 11-8, 10-12, 9-11, 11-9). It should be noted that the opponents were number 27 in the race.
In the evening the degree of difficulty was greater. Fotiadou/Rasanen chased the best against the ninth favorite, the Poland of Matthew Zalevski/Anna Brisca, until they were eliminated 3-1 (1-11, 11-4, 2-11, 8-11).
The dashboard of the ’32 ‘is evolving the doubles of men and women. Greek athletes were eliminated in the first round, while the female twin chased the victory to the end.
In the double men, Madessi fought with teammate Belarusos Nikon Sutov, who is in the championship as an independent. It was number 22 in seeding. They faced the powerful Poland of Matthew Zalevski/Marcel Blastzik (No. 14) and lost normal with 3-0 sets (7-11, 4-11, 7-11).
In the women’s double, Papadimitriou/Fotiadou (No. 16 in the race) had a difficult task of ’32’ against Anthoa Christobal/Airen Kalaitzidou from Spain and Germany respectively (No. 22). The Greek twin performed well and reached a 2-1 set. The game had a balance and then there was a marginal defeat at five sets (10-12, 11-9, 11-4, 6-11, 9-11).
On the bench of athletes from Sweden is Maria Christoforakis in yet another top event. Her athletes go double and claim the entrance to the final 16 of the simple.
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