Both German mixed teams were able to win their opening games at the European Championships. But then eliminated in the second round. Things went better in the women’s individual competition.
From a German point of view, Benedikt Duda and Sabine Winter delivered the kick-off in Munich’s Rudi-Sedlmayr-Halle. The two faced Luxembourg duo Eric Glod and Sarah de Nutte in the first knockout round. And they had to survive a moment of shock. Because after they had won the first two sets relatively clearly, they had to give up the third set 10:12.
Slovak duo too stable
The opponents had sniffed the morning air, but Duda/Winter made everything clear in the fourth round: They won 11:8 and advanced to the next round.
The Slovaks Barbara Balazova and Lubomir Pistej were waiting there. The duos, who were assessed to be similar in terms of performance, fought a match at eye level, which tipped in the direction of Slovakia. All three sets were hard fought at 13:11, 11:9 and 11:9, but mean the end for the German team.
Defending champions close to the end early on
Dang Qui and Nina Mittelham made it even more exciting against the Swedish doubles Linda Bergström/Truls Moeregarth. After losing the first set, they were able to equalize in the second but lost the third set. In the fourth, the German defending champions were on the verge of being eliminated, but were able to fend off two match balls from the Scandinavians. The momentum was back on the side of the two Germans, who clearly won the fifth and decisive set 11:3.
For this German couple, too, the round of 16 is the terminus. Against the Austrian couple Sofia Polcanova and the 43-year-old Robert Gardos it was a disappointing 1: 3 for the Germans (0:11, 11:6, 9:11, 9:11). With that, the defending champions were out of the European Championship tournament.
Mittelham with problems in the run-up to the European Championship
Perhaps not all that surprising given the problems Nina Mittelham was having in the run-up to the European Championships. Due to a corona infection, she was unable to train for two weeks and traveled to Munich quite unsettled. “I don’t know yet how good I’ll be and I’m just trying to play a good tournament,” she said. At first it didn’t go so well.
Merchant and carpenter with opening victories
In the women’s singles, two German starters, Annett Kaufmann and Franziska Schreiner, were in demand in the group phase. It was about the first step towards entering the knockout phase, for which the other German starters Han Ying, Sabine Winter as well as Yuan Wan and Nina Mittelham are already seeded.
Annett Kaufmann revealed minor problems in her first group game against Estonian Airi Avameri when she lost the first set 6:11. Afterwards, the only 16-year-old became more and more confident and won the next sets 11:9, 11:5 and 11:3.
Franziska Schreiner did just as well and easily defeated Alexandra Chiriakova from Moldova 3:0 (12:10, 11:4, 11:4) in her opening match. Like Kaufmann, the 20-year-old, who comes from a table tennis family, will play her next match on Monday afternoon.
