England’s players embraced a topsy-turvey day at the 2013 European Championships after fluctuating fortunes in the singles competition.
While there were wins for Liam Pitchford, Daniel Reed, Andrew Baggaley, Kelly Sibley and Joanna Parker, the three remaining English stars on duty – Sam Walker, Tin-Tin Ho and Hannah Hicks all found the going tough on the second day of the individuals.
While Tin-Tin and Hicks suffered their second defeat in the singles competitions to end their campaigns in Schwechat, Austria, Walker lost a close final encounter to leave his hopes hanging by a thread.
Despite beating Iceland’s Dadi Freyr Gudmundsson in just nine minutes, he lost a dramatically close battle to Sas Lasan (SLO, 179) 3-1 (8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 14-12). He must now wait to see the result of the Slovenian’s match with Lubomir Pistej (SVK) to see if he can still progress through the group on countback.
There was better news for the defeated Hicks and Tin-Tin in Austria though as they combined in the doubles for a spectacular win over Croatian duo Lea Rakovac and Tian Yuan. With a total of 641 world ranking places between the pairs it was a real shock for the English partners to recover from 2-1 down and record a remarkable victory.
There was also wins for Baggaley and Reed and Drinkhall and Sibley in the doubles as the respective pairs maintained their unbeaten records.
2013 Liebherr European Championships (Schwechat, AUT) Results:
Men’s Singles
Group 16:
Liam Pitchford (126) bt Bojan Crepulja (SRB, 351) 3-1 (11-9, 11-13, 11-8, 11-5)
Group 18:
Daniel Reed (228) bt Eskil Lindholm (NOR, 743) 3-0 (11-6, 11-4, 11-8)
Group 22:
Andrew Baggaley (153) bt Nicola Mohler (SUI, 382) 3-1 (9-11, 11-8, 15-13, 11-4)
Group 32:
Sam Walker (430) bt Dadi Freyr Gudmundsson (ISL, ur) 3-0 (11-1, 11-1, 11-5)
Sas Lasan (SLO, 179) bt Sam Walker (430) 3-1 (8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 14-12)
Women’s Singles
Group 14:
Katarzyna Grzybowska (POL, 158) bt Tin-Tin Ho (410) 3-0 (11-3, 11-7, 11-6)
Group 15:
Joanna Drinkhall (159) bt Angeliki Papadaki (GRE, 407) 3-0 (11-9, 11-9, 11-9)
Group 22:
Iulia Necula (ROU, 225) bt Hannah Hicks (556) 3-0 (11-3, 11-6, 11-6)
Group 24:
Kelly Sibley (213) bt Sanem Ezgi Sahin (TUR, 565) 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 11-2)
Kelly Sibley (213) bt Rita Fins (POR, 503) 3-1 (11-6, 14-16, 11-9, 11-6)
Men’s Doubles
Group 8:
Kalinikos Kreanga/Anastasios Riniotis (GRE) bt Liam Pitchford/Sam Walker walkover
Group 14:
Andrew Baggaley/Daniel Reed bt Stefan Leitgeb/Simon Pfeffer (AUT) 3-1 (3-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-6)
Women’s Doubles
Group 11:
Hannah Hicks/Tin-Tin Ho bt Lea Rakovac/Tian Yuan (CRO) 3-2 (4-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-5, 11-9)
Group 12:
Joanna Drinkhall/Kelly Sibley bt Ipek Karahan/Simay Kulakceken (TUR) 3-1 (11-7, 11-9, 8-11, 11-6)
See also:
Walker shines on opening day of Euro singles
Written by Russell Moore (October 9, 2013)