by Simon Daish
Arguably the standout fixture involving a Swiss contestant was Pedro Osiro’s encounter with Austria’s Martin Radel which went right down to the deciding game.
Despite Martin Radel putting in strong showings in the second, fourth and sixth games, claiming the win proved a step to far for the Austrian player as Pedro Osiro emerged successful across seven ends (11-2, 9-11, 12-10, 10-12, 11-7, 10-12, 11-6) to progress beyond the qualification round.
Nicolas Simonet contributed a victory for Switzerland, seeing off the host nation’s José Magalhães without dropping a game (13-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-6) while the third Swiss triumph came courtesy of Dorian Girod who came out on top against Tom Hoffmann of Luxembourg (11-3, 8-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-7) in the lower half of the draw.
Danish table tennis fans will be delighted with the outcome of the Junior Boys’ Singles qualification results, following positive results for Thor Christensen and Martin Andersen.
Demonstrating great stability throughout the match Thor Christensen confidently overcame the challenge of Iceland’s Ellert Kristjan Georgsson in straight games (11-6, 11-2, 11-6, 11-5), but Martin Andersen endured a much more nervous experience as the Dane required the full distance in his tie against Norbert Nagy of Hungary (11-8, 11-6, 5-11, 7-11, 6-11, 11-6, 13-11).
Alberto Lillo is through to the Round of 128 after the Spanish player toppled Serbian opponent Pero Tepic (9-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-13, 12-10, 11-8), while Ukraine’s Anton Limonov triumphed over Kekkos Marios of Cyprus (11-6, 11-8, 11-4, 11-1) to book his place in the main event.
Over in the Junior Boys’ Doubles competition the battle for qualification was also the main focus, and for the Finnish partnership of Pedram Moradabbasi and Matias Ojala the objective of reaching the main draw was achieved.
Israel’s Daniel Adir and Gal Farfel actually made the brighter start to the match by claiming an opening game victory, but Pedram Moradabbasi and Matias Ojala fought back to register a three games to two win (11-13, 11-3, 11-9, 6-11, 11-6).
The Maltese combination of Gabriel Grixti and Isaac Grixti were pushed hard by Icelandic opponents Birgir Ivarsson and Ellert Kristjan Georgsson (11-8, 11-7, 8-11, 9-11, 11-4), while Portugal’s Ricardo Correia and João Silva beat the Cypriot pairing of Christos Sawa and Charalambos Tsissios (9-11, 11-2, 5-11, 11-4, 11-7) to book a meeting with Croatia’s Luka Martinek and Mislav Martinek in the next stage of the competition.
Stag 2017 European Youth Championships: Results – Wednesday 19th July
