Turkey created the biggest upset of the team championships so far beating second seeds England to advance to the final of the European U17 team championships in Prague. The Turks had easily disposed of hosts Czech Republic in the earlier quarter finals and headed into this evenings semi final with real ambitions against England.
Turkey have historically relied heavily on their girls across all competitions but this week in Prague a new generation of boys have given the Turks the edge they needed to have a serious chance of European gold.
The writing was on the wall very early for England as Hope Warner and Rory Easton lost the opening mixed doubles to Bengisu Ercetin and Semih Basakin. Indeed, it was a tough day for the English girls as a whole loosing women’s singles and doubles in both quarter and semi final.
A victory for the English in the men’s doubles and singles brought the semi final tie down to the final match. The Turks were hot favourites with Ercetin and Erdem, who between them have not lost a single match this week in Prague.
The match went according to form and Turkey reached their first U17 team final after being bronze medallists in the previous four editions dating back to 2009.
Danes flawless to end Scottish run
Team Scotland had their moment in the limelight earlier in the day beating France to secure a well-earned medal. The Scot’s came up against Denmark in this evenings semi final and made the Danish top seeds work hard for their final spot, their seventh in succession.
Scotland had their chances in the opening mixed and subsequent men’s singles but on both occasions the Danes dug deep to grind out a three set win in both matches. Gronbjerg an Graversen took the point in the mixed while Nicolaj Wolf took the men’s singles beating Joshua Apiliga in three games.
“That was a tough game for us against Adam and Rachel” said Clara Graversen “They have been playing so well but once we got a little more aggressive in the attack and Sebastian was able to do what he does best from the rear court we were able to win the match.”
Denmark wrapped up the match 3-0 with an easy two set win in the women’s singles. Rachel Sugden went down to Frederikke Lund as the Scottish girl started to show sings of fatigue after a busy week for her country.
Denmark on the other hand had the luxury of being able to field almost two entirely different teams in the quarter final and that freshness might just have a role to play in tomorrow’s final against Turkey.
For all results from today quarter final and semi final play click
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