2016 European Championships Day Two Review: Croatian duo reach Women's Singles main draw

by Simon Daish

Women’s Singles

Andrea Pavlovich wasn’t involved in day one’s action, as her tie with Kelly Sibley (ENG), and so the Croat was playing catch up as day two commenced.

First up for the Croatian player was a sixth end win over Margo Degraef (BEL), but a difficult match with Linda Bergstrom (SWE) was still to come for Pavlovich with the winner guaranteed to take top spot in group 19.

Over 30 places separated Pavlovich (89th) and Bergstrom (57th) in the seeding list for the Championships, but much to the bemusement of her Swedish opponent and the spectators it was the underdog player Pavlovich who ended the tie as the victor.

The other Croatian contestant to qualify for the main event was Mateja Jeger; finishing as group 10 runner up Jeger had to negotiate a preliminary round knockout match, which she won 4-1 against Maria Yovkova (BUL).

Home players Szandra Pegerl and Dora Madarasz topped their respective qualifying groups, as did the likes of Li Qiangbing (AUT), Andrea Todorovic (SRB) and Rachel Moret (SUI).

Men’s Singles

imgpsh_fullsize (1) — Pavel Platonov on top form in Budapest (Photo: Richard Kalocsai)

Day two of the Men’s Singles competition saw the qualification stages draw to a close, but not without it’s fair share of drama.

Belarusian player Pavel Platonov caused a major upset in the preliminary round, beating higher seed Tristan Flore (FRA) across six games.

Surprising everyone watching the encounter Platonov stormed to a 3-0 lead after making an impressive start to the match, but Flore looked set to turn the match on its head when he pulled two consecutive ends back to reduce the score to 3-2. Eventually Platonov got the job done taking back-to-back games to seal his place in the Round of 64.

Two of the preliminary round duels required the full seven game distance to find the winners; Elia Schmid (SUI) edged out Laurens Tromer (NED), and a thrilling match between Mathan Simon (ISR) and Marc Duran (ESP) went to the latter player.

Doubles

The Men’s and Women’s Doubles kicked off their qualifying campaigns on the second day of the Budapest tournament, while the Mixed Doubles had reached the main draw.

Poland’s Tomasz Lewandowski and Patryk Zatowka narrowly saw off Ibrahim Gunduz (TUR) and Abdullah Yigenler (TUR) in the Men’s Doubles, and Azerbaijan duo Deng Simeng and Zhou Chuyi made it through to the Women’s Doubles competition.

However, one of the standout matches of day two took place in the Mixed Doubles category where Liam Pitchford (ENG) and Tin-Tin Ho (ENG) recovered from 0-2 down to defeat the 16th seeds Joao Geraldo (POR) and Yu Fu (POR) 3-2.

Liebherr 2016 European Championships: Watch live on Laola 1.TV