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Popov: Step by step I will be better
Date: 12/2/2019 1:23 PM
Published by : Emilie Sommer (BEC)

Two French guys, who people should look out for in the future, are the Popov brothers. 


Toma Junior Popov, 21, former European Junior Champion in 2017, has been injured for a couple of months in September and October, but has still managed to win two senior titles this year. One in the city of his birth, Sofia, at the Bulgarian Open, and the other three weeks ago at the Irish Open, where he claims he was only back to eighty percent of his usual game. 


- Step by step I will be better, Popov said. 


Always watch Christo 

Toma Junior Popov has a younger brother, Christo Popov, who is only 17, but already has been impressing a lot of people. Last year at the European Junior Championships he achieved a silver medal and at the World Junior Championships he went all the way to the final but unfortunately lost and settled for silver. 


The two brothers are close and use each other both on court as partners and off court as brothers to support each other. 


- We are really close. If he is in a bad mood, I am here to help and cheer him up, he said. 


- I am always looking for when Christo is playing, also when I am playing myself. I think he does the same, he stated. 


Read also: Christo Popov: The hard work begins now


Never play each other

One with a silver at the World Junior Championships and one former European Junior Champion and with two senior titles this year. They attend almost all the same tournaments, but have never played each other in the tournaments yet. But who would win a match against each other, the younger or the older brother? 


- When we train, we do not play a lot of games, but it is always close. I think it is fifty-fifty, he stated. 


- He is coming, so I have to do better because I do not want to lose against him. I have to train harder and push myself, he said with a smile. 


Will he make it to Tokyo?

Of course, the race to Tokyo 2020 was a topic that we touched upon with Toma Junior Popov, and here is what he had to say about it. 


- Most people say that I am not in the race, but I try to believe and do my own way. I lost some of the pleasure of playing, so I will focus on getting that pleasure back first of all. 


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