Events

Finns and Germans head towards group 4 showdown
Date: 3/23/2013 9:29 PM
Published by : Manuel Røsler
Reigning European junior team champions Germany flexed some of their muscle this afternoon in Ankara as the group stages of the Team Championships head toward their conclusion. Team Germany came to Turkey with a lot of pressure on their shoulders as champions and as the Germans showed much of their hand to their opponents in a comfortable 5-0 defeat of Slovenia.

Fabian Roth got the Germans off the mark with a controlled two game win over Andraz Krapez and the tall German clearly felt he dominated from start to finish. “The beginning of the opening set was a bit nervy for me but I still felt I dominated and once I won the first I settled better and gave the opening point to our team with an easy win in the second game”

Luise Heim followed Roth with a win in the women’s singles but was made to fight hard against Kaja Stankovic. The German came through in three sets which was a huge positive for the smiling Heim as Stankovic is one of the fancied outsiders for the individual event next week.

“It was great to beat a player of her (Stankovic) quality and more importantly it gave the team a 2-0 lead in the match which we felt was important” said Heim after her victory.

The Germans rounded off the 5-0 victory in some style as they introduced their heavy hitting mixed doubles pairing of Lamsfuss and Volkmann. The German pair looked like the real deal in this their first outing at the European Juniors and in particular the ever smiling Volkmann’s control of the front court was top class this afternoon.

“We took some time to get used to the hall today. A little drift with fast shuttles was sometimes difficult. But I really enjoyed the game and it was great to give the them a 5-0 win and now we look forward to the group decider against Finland” said the bubbly Volkmann

The Finn’s themselves looked thoroughly dominant in their 5-0 win over Romania. Even with their collective feet only half on the gas Finland looked a well balanced team. Annemarie Oksa (main picture) had a tough three set win over Adelina Marin Terinte but the rest of team Finland were in cruise control which will give them great confidence against German in tomorrow’s group showdown.

Sweden produced another one of their ‘Houdini’ like miraculous escapes as they come through in the deciding men’s doubles against a gritty Croatian side to win 3-2. The Swedes also defeated Iceland by the same score line with their men carrying the team as the ladies failed to sparkle. Jacob Nilsson bagged a pair of wins for team Sweden but the Croatians have a lot to be positive about and in Maja Pavlinic they have one of the players of the tournament so far who has been more than satisfied with her time in Ankara to date

“I have enjoyed my games so far and even though I lost a tight singles yesterday against England it gave me great confidence and today it was nice to play on the TV court with all my family at home watching and to win both my matches”

Sweden now go through to meet England for the honour of topping group 3 after the English defeated Iceland 5-0.

Russia, Denmark and Turkey continued to catch the eye as potential gold medallists as all won 5-0 today but France struggled in their match against Switzerland but showed fighting spirit that will stand to ‘Les Blues’ in later rounds which was typified by the performance of Anne Tran in her mixed doubles alongside partner Bastian Kersaudy.

“We struggled in the first game today and it was difficult to get a feel for the hall. But we just kept fighting and we could hear our team mates shouting and this helped us win in the third game”

For all results from today’s games click HERE

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For all latest news about the European Junior Championships follow Badminton Europe on twitter by clicking HERE
To watch today’s action on demand and the LIVE group action tomorrow go to badmintoneurope.tv by clicking HERE

Article and Image by Mark Phelan (Live in Ankara)
©badmintoneurope.com. All rights reserved.

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