Sweden reached quarterfinal after they beat Romania
In the Women’s Team’s Event at the Baku 2015 European Games Poland is in quarterfinal. They will meet Netherlands whilst Ukraine will play against Sweden.
Poland overcame Luxembourg.
“LI Qian gave us good start with the victory over Sarah DE NUTTE ” stated Katarzyna GRZYBOWSKA.”I also had few chances against experienced NI Xia Lian. We went full distance and I had the advantage 5:2 in decisive game. NI recovered had advantage 6:5 9:7…”
The next duel in doubles was very important. Polish partnership of GRZYBOWSKA and Natalia PARTYKA won it.
“In past four years from London time Natalia and I paying together. We feel confident together and it brought us success once again. So after our win it was up to LI to seal the victory and she did it easily.”
PARTYKA and GRZYBOWSKA were runners up in Bangkok Germany and at Czech open.
In the quarters Poland will meet Netherlands the team that has beat them four years ago at the World Championships in Moscow. Dutch team overcame Serbia in the duel that suffered with luck of suspense. Dutch team was a clear favorite but they started their journey in Azerbaijan in full power. Two leading ladies LI Jiao and LI Jie were on duty against second lower ranked team in the field this morning. LI Jiao beat Gabriela FEHER at the opening.
“No one fells good in the opening match. We needed good start here and we did our best to get it. Now we are ready for Poland. We hope for the semi final at least in Baku ” said LI Jiao. “I struggled a little against top spins in doubles but everything was all right at the end.”
LI Jie overcame Anamarija ERDELJI. “ERDELJI was to nervous.”
One of the major upsets came from Sweden. They overcame Romania and the backbone of their success was Matilda EKHOLM who beat both Elizabeta SAMARA and Bernadette SZOCS.
“I played against SAMARA at the European Championships in 2014 and I beat her. I know what to do and it gave me some sort of confidence. We were also aware how strong Romania is. We could not let them feel we will give up at any point. We were focused to show that we are strong as a team and that they have to work hard to beat us ” explained Matilda EKHOLM.
Opening victory and red alarm came already with Linda BERGSTROM. She overcame Camelia POSTOACA. Linda is currently ranked at the position no. 187 at the World rankings whilst POSTOACA is World’s no 94. EKHOLM overcame SAMARA to widen the gap before victory for Romania in doubles made some space for their recovery. Romania won the doubles but they need to stop Matilda for reaching the decisive match. Bernadette SZOCS only managed to stretch Matilda to full distance.
“It was so difficult to play against Bernadette. She is so full of energy and she never gives up ” explained EKHOLM.
SAMARA was devastated after the defeat. “I am so upset. It is hard for me to speak now. We were so unlucky with the draw but we should win this one. I should beat Matilda. She is left hander and I usually play very good against such adversaries. Today Matilda seized every chance. She felt the ball well and did not make any easy mistake to made it any easier for me.”
On the other side Bernadette was extremely proud with her performance. “I lost but I played very good. I am happy with the way I opposed Matilda. I hope for good results in singles.”
