European Championships | 19 Oct 2024

Reigning Champions POLCANOVA and SZOCS to Play for Gold Against BALAZOVA and MATELOVA

In tomorrow's final of the Women's Doubles Event at the 2024 LIEBHERR European Championships, reigning champions Sofia POLCANOVA of Austria and Bernadette SZOCS of Romania will face Hana MATELOVA of Czechia and Barbora BALAZOVA of Slovakia.

"We were leading 10-8 in the opening game and then lost it. If that hadn’t happened, it would have been a completely different situation. This way, we made it a little more difficult for ourselves. However, our win was never in question. Even if I didn’t move well, Sofia was there. We know how to support each other. Up until now, we have enough experience playing together and we know how to calm each other down and give each other energy," said SZOCS.

POLCANOVA and SZOCS faced a strong challenge in their semifinal match against Izabela LUPULESKU and Sabina SURJAN of Serbia, who pushed them to the full distance. The duo of LUPULESKU and SURJAN ended a 21-year drought for women's table tennis in Serbia. Serbian female players had not appeared on the medal podium since the European Championships in Courmayeur 2003.

Photo: Rémy Gros

There was no lack of suspense in the other semifinal match either. Hana MATELOVA and Barbora BALAZOVA were down 2-0 against Natalia BAJOR of Poland and Tatiana KUKULKOVA of Slovakia. They even faced two match balls in the third game before mounting a remarkable comeback to win the match.

“We’ve played more than three times against the same pairings, and KUKULKOVA and I are teammates, so there’s no big mystery about the tactics. We know each other very well. In the first two games, they played tactically superbly. We couldn’t find our rhythm and made a lot of easy mistakes,” explained BALAZOVA.

However, they didn’t give up.

“We kept fighting and forced ourselves to stay much calmer, even when they had two match balls,” said BALAZOVA.

MATELOVA added that the situation wasn’t new to them: “We had a similar match last November against them in Düsseldorf, where we were also two games down.”

BALAZOVA and MATELOVA finally found their rhythm in the fourth game.

“We’ve never won a medal at a major championship, and we’ve been playing together since 2011. Our first event together was the European Championships in Herning. We’ve reached the quarterfinals four times, including once at the World Championships, but we never made it to the medal podium. Maybe this is our last chance, and we’re happy we broke the spell,” said MATELOVA.

Women's Doubles Results:

Sofia POLCANOVA, Bernadette SZOCS (Austria, Romania) - Izabela LUPULESKU, Sabina SURJAN (Serbia) 3-2 (10-12, 11-4, 11-5, 5-11, 11-3)

Natalia BAJOR, Tatiana KUKULKOVA (Poland, Slovakia) - Hana MATELOVA, Barbora BALAZOVA (Czechia, Slovakia) 2-3 (11-8, 11-5, 12-14, 5-11, 11-13)