Ukraine’s men pulled off one of the upsets of the tournament beating group favourites France in a fever pitch match that extended to over four and half hours in the evening session on the third day of the 2014 European Men’s and Women’s Team Championships in Basel, Switzerland.

While most of the other 9 matches in the session had concluded the French and Ukrainians were embroiled in a ding dong battle for the top spot in group 6 and with it the chance to play Germany in the quarter finals tomorrow.
Mr Consistent, Dmytro Zavadsky (pictured) set the tone for the match taking down French number 1 Brice Leverdez and Valeriy Atrashchenkov soon followed up with a second point for team Ukraine defeating Thomas Rouxel is a second singles three set battle.

Youngster Artem Pochtarev was given the responsibility of taking Ukraine into an unassailable 3-0 lead and all looked good at 1 game each and 18-13 in the deciding set. The never say die attitude of his opponent was something that the young Ukrainian had not factored into the equation as the Frenchman bounced right back to win 7 of the next 9 points to level at 20-20. Claerbouts composure took him through 23-21 in the end to the delighted of his team mates both male and female.

Claerbouts victory was the catalyst for a thorough display from Careme & Labar as the French doubles rallied to come through with relative ease to level the tie at 2-2. Zavadsky emerged back on court in the second doubles to partner Pochtarev and came back from a set down to defeat Corvee & Mittelheisser to top group 6 and advance to a quarter final meeting with 2012 silver medallists Germany.

Irish upset leaves Dutch rock bottom

Group 3 in the women’s tournament had been touted as the group of death as soon as the draw was conducted with the Irish girls seen as the ‘whipping boys’ in a group which contained traditional Euro powerhouses, France and The Netherlands and tournament favourites Bulgaria.

While France and Bulgaria battled it out for group honours the Dutch and Irish took to the court with only pride at stake. Chloe Magee led the way as she has done all week and Alannah Stephenson and Sinead Chambers followed Magee’s lead to race into a three love lead even before the Dutch had an opportunity to unleash their world class doubles pairings.

The results lifted the Irish off the bottom of the group and will leave the Dutch with a lot to think about after taking bronze medal two years ago in Amsterdam.

“It was a great win for us today. We knew the Dutch had a weakness in singles and I knew if I won the opening match that could give the other girls the motivation to win the next two. They did just that and to beat The Netherlands, no matter what their team, is a milestone for Ireland” said Chloe Magee.

Juhl and Pedersen take no risks as the enter in final group match

World number two pairing Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl were in defiant mood and were leaving no stone unturned as the entered the tournament today for the final match of the group stage.

The hurt from recent team events has obviously been the driving factor behind their earlier than normal arrival in Basel and the Danish Super Stars used the court time to assess and get used to the vast expanses of the hall.

“We have come here with extra motivation and desire this year as we have not performed well in the last years in team competitions in Europe for Denmark. It is our goal to win gold and with the younger girls performing so well in the singles we believe we will do it” Said Juhl in her post match interview.

All the quarter final action is LIVE of Eurosport 2 from 10am local time tomorrow covering all matches from court 1.

For Facebook photo gallery from Basel click HERE
For all results from the final group matches click HERE

To watch all the matches on demand from Badminton Europe’s YouTube channel CLICK HERE.

Tickets are still available at the main entrance of the St. Jakobshalle. For information please call the infomation desk +41 78 854 59 59 or +41 78 883 59 58.

Article by Mark Phelan (Live in Basel). Photo by BadmintonPhoto.