Unlike at Junior Girls Under 19 event for the Boys at the GAZPROM European Youth Championship it was much stronger opening. Three out of eight matches in top four Groups concluded as five matches affairs and only two matches ended with 3:0 margin.
One of the duels that ended 3:0 is a match between Poland and Sweden. Seeing top seeds in Group D Poland to win is not a surprise but Maciej KUBIK’s win in straight games against Martin FRIIS in the opening match rose few eyebrows. After such opening Poland continued in same style. Samuel KULCZYCKI beat Charlie WIDING and Milosz REDZIMSKI overcame Hugo TORGREN. It was the last match that went full distance and gave some sense of uncertainty.
Croatia beat Denmark in the opening match.
In Group A Belgium went full distance against Hungary. Oliver BOTH and Csaba ANDRAS both beat Adrien RASSENFOSSE but Nicolas DEGROSS showed how good he could perform under pressure. He won both his matches; decisive one was resolved in five games.
โ I think it was a very difficult match as are all the first matches in the tournament are. We arrived at this tournament with a changed composition of the team. One of our first players couldnโt arrive because he was injured and we didnโt want to take any chances. Obviously there are more quality players among us so we succeeded with the B team which is good for me because I get a chance to play โ said Nicolas DEGROSS.
Spain won the marathon against Italy after being 0:2 in reverse. Juan PEREZ and Miguel NUNEZ both lost their encounters but after Marc GUTIERREZ overcame Maco CAPUCCIO the table turns. NUNEZ beat John OYEBODE whilst PEREZ beat PUPPO in decisive match after he faced match ball in favor of Italian player.
Without third player Russia could not stop Portugal in Group B. Czech Republic overcame Turkey. In Group C top seeded Germany lost to France after great battle in five matches. All three players won one match: Alexis LEBRUN and Thibault PORET against Daniel RINDERER and Alexis KOURAICHI against Hannes HOERMANN.
โ It was a very good match between two very good teams. I am proud that all the players contributed to this victory โ said Alexis LEBRUN.
In the same Group Slovakia beat Serbia.
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