by Ian Marshall, Editor
The no.20 seeds, facing Slovakia, the no.15 seeds, Spain, pulled off the recovery of the day.
A narrow defeat for Alvaro Robles against Lubomir Pistej (7-11, 17-15, 11-7, 5-11, 12-10), followed by the same eventual outcome for Jesus Cantero when confronting Wang Yang (11-6, 11-5, 9-11, 12-10) saw Spain reach the point of no return. Enter Carlos Machado, he beat Alexander Valuch (11-5, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6) to ignite the recovery. Alvaro Robles followed suit by overcoming Wang Yang (11-7, 11-5, 11-13, 11-9), to set the scene for Jesus Cantero to seal the victory. He duly obliged, he accounted for Lubomir Pistej in straight games (11-5, 11-7, 11-5).
“I started with some difficulties in the opening match but later I managed to find my game again. My teammates did a job; especially Cantero in the decisive match which was perfect. He outplayed Pistej beautifully. Now we have to get ready for France. We will try to take advantage of the fact that they will be under severe pressure. They are the hosts; we already have one victory, which means if they lose the competition is over for them. That is why we will put them on the pressure from the very beginning to make them nervous.” Alvaro Robles
Delight for Spain, for Belgium it was contrasting emotions.
In the men’s team event, the no.12 seeds, the combination of Cédric Nuytinck, Florent Lambiet and Robin Devos experienced a 3-2 defeat at the hands of the no.22 seeds, Serbia’s Aleksandar Karakasevic, Marko Jevtovic and Zsolt Peto; Cédric Nuytinck accounted for both Zsolt Peto (11-4, 11-9, 11-7) and Aleksandar Karakasevic (9-11, 11-4, 6-11, 11-8, 11-9) but that was the sum total of Belgian success.
Conversely, in the women’s event the combination of Lisa Lung, Margo Degraef and Nathalie Marchetti, the no.19 seeds, recorded a 3-1 success in opposition to the no.15 seeds, the Belarus contingent formed by Alina Nikitchanka, Daria Trigolos and Nadezhda Bogdanova. Mainstay of the victory was Lisa Lung, she beat both Alina Nikitchanka (11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 12-10) and Daria Trigolos (11-8, 8-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-7).
Germany, Sweden, France and Austria, the leading nations in the men’s team event enter the action on Wednesday 4th September, as in the women’s event do Romania, Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands.
