by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
Defeat for Jajub Dyjas, it was his second of the day; earlier in the late morning he had been beaten at the semi-final stage of the Men’s Singles event by Frenchman, Emmanuel Lebesson (11-8, 11-5, 5-11, 11-6, 11-6).
Nevertheless, one bronze and one silver medal; it was surely more than he could have anticipated?
“Everything will look better tomorrow. I played well and the results are great but it will take time before I recovered from today’s defeats. It is not easy”, Jakub Dyjas.
Success for Patrick Franziska; he becomes the fifth German to be a member of a successful European Championships Men’s Doubles partnership.
Notably, the most successful is Timo Boll, who has won on no less than five occasions.
In 2002 he partnered Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth to success in Zagreb; before winning on four consecutive occasions with Christian Süss; they won in 2007 in Belgrade prior to performing successful title defences in St Petersburg, Stuttgart and Ostrava.
Notably in three of those finals, as now in Budapest, Polish players experienced defeat in the final
Lucjan Blaszczyk was the man to suffer; in 2002 with Tomasz Krzeszewski, in 2007 in partnership with Croatia’s Tan Ruiwu; before in 2009 experiencing the same fate with Wang Zengyi.
“We do not have much experiences; that is why we were little bit nervous in the final. To be honest, last time I played the final, it was in 2010 against Timo Boll and Christian Süss. In addition Dyjas and Gorak played very well. It was hard to keep them under the control”, Jonathan Groth
Meanwhile, in 2010, the man to experience the pain of defeat in the final was Jonathan Groth; on that occasion partnering Danish colleague, Kasper Sternberg.
The one other German success in a Men’s Doubles final at a European Championships was in 1998 in Eindhoven; on that occasion Jörg Rosskopf partnered Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus to gold. At the final hurdle they beat the combination formed by Kalinikos Kreanga of Greece and Serbia’s Ilija Lupulesku.
Five Germans to have lifted the European Championships Men’s Doubles title; the number for Denmark is just one.
Despite the fact that Michael Maze and Finn Tugwell won bronze at the Athens, 2004 Olympic Games, they never succeeded at the continental gathering.
At the European Championships, Jonathan Groth stands alone.