By Neha Aggarwal
In the girls section, the young ladies showed no mercy for France ‘A’ as they won 3-0 in the finals of the Cadet Girls’ Team event.
Ekaterina Zironova went in first on duty for Russia ‘A’ against Camille Lutz from France ‘A’. Zironova and Lutz played extremly fierce table tennis in a match which went to the deciding point. But the Russian came the better off winning (11-9, 4-11, 2-11, 12-10, 11-7 ).
Next entered Elizabet Abraamian for Russia ‘A’ and Prithika Pavade for France ‘A’, a match that was decided in four games. Abraamian won 11-5, 12-10, 9-11, 11-6.
The third match was the doubles. Ekaterina Zironova and Elizabet Abraamian seemed like a dream pair as they won over Camille Lutz and Prithika Pavade in four games. They won the first two games 11-9, 11-4, thus gaining a 2-0 lead. The French girls bounced back winning the third game 11-9. But the Russians were just dominant as they wrapped up the fourth game 11-4, winning the title.
In the Cadet boys, Russia ‘A’ won the title beating Belgium in a similar scoreline as the girls. They won 3-0 and gave no chance to Belgium boys.
Vladislav Makarov for Russia ‘A’ started off the campaign winning over Belgium’s Adrien Rassenfosse (12-10, 11-9, 12-10 ). Next came Maksim Grebnev for Russia ‘A’ who won over Belgium’s Olav Kosolosky in very close margins, a match that went up to the last breath. Grebnev won (11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 5-11, 11-9) to give Russia ‘A’ a 2-0 lead.
The doubles was also a similarly close contest, Russians winning 3-2, and finally winning the crown in a 3-0 victory.
With this, the team events culminated and on 21st May 2017, the singles main draw will commence. Earlier in the day, the group stage was played and thus the main draw was decided.
