Celebration time for Ukraine and Germany on the last day of
competition, Sunday 19th July 2009, at the European Youth Championships
in Prague. Margaryta Pesotska and Petrissa Solja defended their titles
successfully in the Junior and Cadet Girls’ Singles events
respectively.
Both won in an impressive manner after negotiating difficult hurdles earlier.
An ‘Easy’ Final Day
In
the fifth game, Pesotska converted the fifth match point to gain
victory in the O2 Arena in Prague. ‘I tried everything at that stage’,
Pesotska explained about the last rallies in this match. ‘Szczerkowska
won points on my service, on her service ‘ I did not know what to do to
stop her.’
Beside this, Pesotska had the final against her
Polish opponent Magdalena Szczerkowska under control. The most
difficult moment on the way to the title defence was in the
quarter-final against Germany’s Kathrin M’hlbach.
‘Yesterday I
played a hard match against Kathrin M’hlbach in seven games. I trailed
three games to one and managed to save the match. Today it was the
opposite situation; it was easy’, Pesotska said.
The bronze
medallists are Hungary’s Dora Madarasz and Sweden’s Malin Pettersson.
The latter was nil-three down in her semi-final against Szczerkowska,
changed her tactics, levelled the match but lost unluckily 11-13 in the
decider.
In the Junior Girls’ Doubles event, Romania’s Cristina
Hirici and Anamaria Sebe overcame the French pair Alice Abbat and
St’phanie Loeuillette 11-7, 11-4 and 11-7. The bronze medals went to
Poland’s Szczerkowska and Kusinska and Hungary’s Madarasz/Ambrus.
Solja Irresistibly
Germany’s
Petrissa Solja defended her title from Terni 2008 successfully. 11-4,
11-9, 11-6 and 11-7 was the clear result against the Russian challenger
Yana Noskova.
‘I don’t know right now which gold medal is
worth more’, Solja tried to compare the one from last year with this
year’s gold won in Prague. ‘But actually that doesn’t matter. Now I am
delighted that I was able to repeat my last year’s win.’
Solja
won the final as well as the semi-final four-nil and underlined her
dominance on the old continent in her last year as a cadet. The most
difficult moments were in the quarter-final and in the last 16. Solja
was struggling against Moldova’s Sofia Polcanova and Mercedes
Nagyvaradi of Hungary respectively winning both times in close six
games.
Noskova’s compatriot Ekaterina Guseva and Romania’s Bernadette Sz’cs were awarded the bronze medals.
Source: www.ittf.com
