Russia and Scotland won their first matches at the 2019 European Mixed Team Championships Qualification.

Russia and Scotland are the favorites to battle for the victory of EMTC Qualification Group 2, which is played in Moldova.

On the first day of play the young Scottish team won 3-2 against Ukraine thanks to victories in the mixed doubles, men’s doubles and women’s singles.

- Ukraine is a difficult team, and we knew we had to play well in the first match to get the first point. We got a good start, but we got a bit too passive, but we are happy to get the win, Alexander Dunn said after winning the mixed doubles alongside Julie Macpherson.

Russia too strong for Moldova
In the second tie of the day the seeded favorites from Russia beat the host from Moldova 4-1. Cristian Savin lost the men’s singles against Vladimir Malkov, and he admitted that is was a tough challenge to play the Russian.

- He is more experienced than me and I play my first year as a senior. He kept pressure on me, and then I made a lot of mistakes, Savin says.

- In the beginning I felt a lot of pressure. It is my first time with a home crowd, and there is a lot of people here, which is nice.



On Saturday Russia will play Ukraine and Moldova will play Scotland.