by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
At the final hurdle of the Boys’ Team event France ‘A’, represented by Fabio Rakotoarimanana and Myshaal Sabhi, accounted France ‘B’ Team colleagues Hugo Deschamps and Ethan Claude by three matches to one.
Backbone of the success was Myshaal Sabhi. He beat Hugo Deschamps (10-12, 11-3, 11-3, 7-11, 11-7) and Ethan Claude (11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 11-7) thus maintaining his unbeaten record in the whole event.
Earlier in the day at the semi-final stage Fabio Rakotoarimanana and Myshaal Sabhi had overcome the Croatian combination of Ivor Ban, Lovro Zovko and Filip Borovnjak by three matches to nil.
In the opposite half of the draw Hugo Deschamps and Ethan Claude had recorded a three-two success when facing Germany’s Hannes Hoermann and Mike Hollo The player to cause the French problems was Mike Hollo, he accounted for both Hugo Deschamps (15-13, 11-7, 11-8) and Ethan Claude (11-6, 11-5, 11-7).
A splendid performance by Myshaal Sabhi, it was the same for both Chloe Chomis and Lou Frete on duty for France ‘A’ in the Girls’ Team event; neither lost a singles match, the only defeats came in the doubles.
They experienced doubles trouble in the final against Sweden’s Rebecca Muskantor and Leah Tveit Muscantor (11-3, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8) in a three-one overall success, the same score-line as had been the situation one round earlier against the Greek combination of Daniela Grammatopoulou and Malamatenia Papadimitrou. Similarly, the doubles was the errant match (6-11, 11-5, 11-9, 5-11, 11-8).
One round prior, at the quarter-final stage Chloe Chomis and Lou Frete had recorded a three-nil win in opposition to Hungary’s Irisz Laskai and Franciska Pad.
Meanwhile, in the opposite half of the draw, in the round of the last eight Rebecca Muskantor and Leah Tveit Muscantor had beaten Germany’s Naomi Pranjkovic and Annett Kaufmann by three matches to two, prior to recording a three-one semi-final success in opposition to the Poland ‘A’ Team pairing of Anna Bryska and Elzbieta Kwiatkowska.
Play in Bratislava concludes with the individual events on Sunday 5th November.
