by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
A three matches to two reverse was the lot of Csaba Andras and Oliver Both when facing Gal Alguetti and Sharon Alguetti.
Csaba Andras
Csaba Andras from the BVSC Zuglo club in Budapest, a club from which the likes of Janos Jakab and Daniel Zwickl emanated and for whom Sweden’s Jörgen Persson represented in 2008, emerged successful in both his singles duels but it was not enough to avert defeat.
He beat Gal Alguetti in the opening match of the contest (11-7, 11-9, 11-4), before in the third match of the fixture defeating Sharon Alguetti (11-8, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9).
Alas for the Hungarians, Oliver Both was beaten narrowly by Sharon Alguetti in the second match of the fixture (11-9, 9-11, 8-11, 11-3, 12-10), before in the fifth and decisive contest experiencing defeat at the hands of Gal Alguetti in a hard fought four games contest (13-11, 13-11, 7-11, 11-5).
Crucially, the doubles contest went the way of the Americans; Gal Alguetti and Sharon Alguetti recorded a five games win to turn the tide in their favour (11-7, 9-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-1).
Semi-finals
Earlier at the semi-final stage Gal Alguetti and Sharon Alguetti had beaten the Belgian duo of Niolas Degros and Adrien Rassenfosse by three matches to nil; Csaba Andras and Oliver Both had recorded a three-one win against the Russian combination of Maksim Grebnev and Vladislav Makarov.
Swedes provide severe test
A tense full distance success for the Americans to seize gold; for Helga Dari and Anita Drabant en route to the Cadet Girls’ Team title, the testing encounter was in the penultimate round when facing Sweden’s Jennie Edvinsson and Rebecca Muskantor.
The Hungarians posted a three-two win very much thanks to the efforts of Anita Drabant. She beat both Rebecca Muskantor in the second match of the fixture (11-4, 11-6, 7-11, 11-7) and Jennie Edvinsson in the fourth (7-11, 11-7, 13-11, 7-11, 11-5), to set the scene for Helga Dari to be the heroine of the hour.
“Very good but it was hard to win; the matches were tough and if I will be truly honest, I didn’t play well. Maybe it was enough for victory now but I didn’t show my best. Actually, the performance of Anita was crucial. Varazdin is our second tournament that we have played together, we played in Poland. It is the first that we have won.” Helga Dari
She overcame Rebeca Muskantor in four games to seal the victory (11-5, 11-4, 5-11, 11-5). The wins for Sweden were recorded in the opening match of the contest when Jennie Edvinsson beat Helga Dari (7-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-9) and in the doubles when Jennie Edvinsson and Rebecca Muskantor recorded a four games win (11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 14-12)’
Less dramatic
A hard fought semi-final duel; the final was less dramatic; a three-nil success was recorded a Turkey.
Anita Drabant beat Ece Harac (11-7, 11-8, 11-8), Helga Dari defeated Aybala Kocal (11-9. 9-11, 14-12, 11-7), before a four games doubles recorded by the Hungarians ended matters (9-11, 12-10, 11-8, 13-11).
Earlier in the counterpart penultimate round contest; Ece Harac and Aybala Kocal had beaten Slovenian trio of Katarina Strazar, Lea Paulin and Lara Opeka by three matches to one.
