by Simon Daish
With Elizabeta Samara overcoming a difficult test against Iveta Vacenovska in the opening contest of the tie (11-8, 7-11, 10-12, 11-6, 11-5) the early advantage was in Tarnobrzeg’s favour. Han Ying and Li Qian then followed up with superb outings against Natalia Partyka (11-3, 11-7, 11-1) and Solomiya Brateyko (11-5, 11-3, 11-4) – KTS Enea Siarka Tarnobrzeg now leads Group D by a three point margin.
2017-2018 winners Dr. Casl experienced a challenging trip to France in Group A with the Croatian side requiring the full match distance to see off Metz TT.
Making a convincing start to the tie through Doo Hoi Kem, who came out on top against Carole Grundisch (11-5, 11-4, 11-8), but the defending champions were put on the back foot with consecutive victories for Pauline Chasselin and Adina Diaconu putting the hosts in charge. With little room for error Yu Mengyu and Doo Hoi Kem stepped up to the task, beating Carole Grundisch (11-9, 11-13, 6-11, 11-2, 11-4) and Pauline Chasselin (11-8, 11-7, 11-7) to seal a 3-2 away win.
TTC Berlin Eastside extended its perfect start to Group B after picking up another 3-0 win, this time at Etival Clairefontaine ASRTT’s expense. Matilda Ekholm put the German champions ahead with a straight games win over Jieni Shao (11-6, 11-5, 11-4) before Georgina Pota and Nina Mittelham proved successful in their fixtures against Hana Matelova (11-9, 15-13, 11-7) and Camelia Iacob (7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-5).
For the second match in a row Sofia Polcanova proved the hero of the hour for Linz AG Froschberg, claiming two wins to her name against Aurore Le Mansec (11-6, 9-11, 11-7, 11-2) and Zhang Mo (11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 11-4) withLinda Bergström claiming an impressive outcome from her meeting with Polina Mikhailova (11-8, 11-8, 11-7) to lead the Austrian outfit to a 3-1 success away to TT Saint Quentinois.