The two reigning European team champions are on the way to defend
their titles in the Russian city of St. Petersburg. The Hungarian trio
overcame Croatia 3-0 and will now face the Netherlands in the Women’s
Team final.
The penultimate round in the Men’s Team event
brought two hard contested matches. Whilst Belarus beat Belgium luckily
3-0, the German Olympic silver medallists won as close as possible.
Bastian Steger prevailed against Austria’s Robert Gardos with 11-9 in
the fifth game of the fifth match.
Austria’s Never-Give-Up Mentality not Awarded
Ferenc
Karsai’s Austrian team was down very quickly in the semi-final match
against Germany. Timo Boll brought the title holder ahead against
Robert Gardos and Bastian Steger surprised Werner Schlager leading 2-0;
five games played, 5-0 for Germany. However Schlager, World champion in
2003, fought back and equalised for his team.
The third match
between Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Austria’s Chen Weixing was
already a nail-biting affair. Chen saved two match points in the fourth
game and was 6-4 ahead in the fifth. Advantage Austria? No, Ovtcharov
made seven points in a row and won 11-6 in the fifth. "That was my best
performance at this European Championships", a happy Ovtcharov was
quoted, "Chen was in a really good shape."
Steger the Hero after more than Three Hours
Werner
Schlager then showed an outstanding performance wrestling down Timo
Boll with 3-1 and Robert Gardos came very close in the fifth match to
eliminate the Germans. "I got him twice, I had two times 5-2", Gardos
said stunned. "There were so many lucky balls, that was madness!"
Gardos
led 2-1 in games and 5-2 in the fourth as well as in the fifth game. It
was 8-6 for the Austrian but Steger prevailed 11-9 after more than
three hours. "Phew, I am completely exhausted", Bastian Steger said. He
was only substitute at the Olympic Games in Beijing; thanks to good
performances the 27 year old captured a place in Germany’s line-up, at
the cost of Christian Süss.
Belgium’s Resistance was not Enough
The
other semi-final match in the Men’s Team event ended 3-0 for Belarus.
The Belgians, however, were not chanceless. Jean-Michel Saive only lost
10-12 in the fifth game against Vladimir Samsonov and Belgium’s Martin
Bratanov was almost able to equalise for his team. Again the Belgian
player lost in five games and can only console himself with the bronze
medal.
Click on Results from St. Petersburg to see all the team matches played so far at the European Championships.
Source: www.ittf.com
