Team England came out on top of group 3 this afternoon at the European Junior Championships after another faultless 5-0 win. The English raised their performance to another level in the group decider against Sweden with Chloe Birch setting the tone for the English victory with her 21-14 21-10 victory of Elin Svensson.

The English had been very much written off on the lead up to this championship but proved today that they have not travelled to Ankara just to make up the numbers. The statistics speak for themselves as Team England have not dropped a singles game en route the quarter finals and Sweden had no real answers for the power of the English this afternoon. Tom Wolfenden and Jenny Moore set the ball rolling for the English and even though they dropped a set the English pair were comfortable as they handed England the opening point they needed.

“It is always good to get the first point in these team events and I just think we lost a little concentration in the second game and again towards the end of the third set when we were leading comfortably.” Said Wolfenden after the mixed doubles victory.

Alex Lane (pictured) was made to work very hard for his victory against Jacob Nilsson. The Englishman came through a tough mental battle against the Swede who tried on numerous occasions to upset the Rhythm of the reigning European U17 champion who was visible relieved after the victory.  “It was really tough mentally out there. There was a lot of breaks in play and some mind games going on so I was relieved when I finally took that winning point”

Chloe Birch rarely had to extend herself against the punchy style of Elin Svensson and the English girl has got better with each match and is relishing her time on court in Ankara “I played better today than the previous days and I think as a team we raised our level today which is important as we move to the quarterfinals. We have had three clean sheets in the group which is as much as we could have wished for before the tournament started”

The English rounded off the perfect day with wins in the men’s and women’s doubles and now advance to a quarter final meeting with The Netherlands.

Denmark dropped their first match of the tournament in group 1 but overall will be happy with their progression through the group. Against Bulgaria today the Danes controlled the opening four matches with easy two set wins before the Stoeva Sisters upset the group clean sheet with a 2 game win in the final match that put a small blemish on the Danish copy book.

However both teams will meet once again in tomorrow’s quarter final as Bulgaria make it through as best runner up from the seven groups. The decision by Bulgaria to refrain from using Stefani Stoeva in today’s singles against Line Kjaersfeldt almost backfired but tomorrow is another day and the Bulgarians will have to use their star at singles if they are to be in with any chance of troubling the Danes.

France came through as winners of group five after handing a heavy 4-1 defeat to Poland while Germany looked like real medal contenders after an exciting early morning group deciding win against Finland.

The Germans have a real talented couple in the shape of Volkmann and Lamsfuss and they delivered the first point of the match with a two set win in the mixed doubles against Heino and Lindholm. The only negative for the Germans was the loss of Fabian Roth in men’s singles to Kalle Koljonen but Germany powered home with wins in the women’s singles and men’s and women’s doubles.

Mark Byerly and Mark Lamsfuss were upbeat about the Germans chances now that they succeeded in winning the group “We had been called unexperienced coming into this tournament which really has only served to motivate us more to do well. It was important to win the first mixed match against Finland and we knew if we did that we had every chance of winning the tie”

Russia and Turkey also came through as group winners as both progressed with victories against Austria and Scotland respectively.

Quarter final line up for 2013 European Junior Team Championships

England V The Netherlands
Germany V Turkey
France V Russia
Denmark V Bulgaria (as best runners up)

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Article and Image by Mark Phelan (Live in Ankara)