Red-white-red festival at the Liebherr Table Tennis European Championships 2024 in Linz. After silver in the mixed doubles by Sofia Polcanova and Robert Gardos, the fans can celebrate three more medals: The defending champions Polcanova/Szócs (Ö/Rum) are in the final after a 3-0 win against the top seeds Maria Xiao (ESP)/Adina Diaconu (ROU) and a 3-2 win over the Serbians Izabela Lupulesku/Sabina Surjan (SRB/12). In the singles, the European champion clinched the semifinal spot. The European Championship debutants Maciej Kolodziejczyk/Vladimir Ursu (MDA) won bronze in the doubles.
Polcanova secures European Championship medal number nine and ten!
For the third time after 2018 and 2022, Sofia Polcanova has won three medals at a European Championship: After silver in the mixed doubles and reaching the final in the doubles with Bernadette Szócs (ROU), the Linz native secured her tenth European Championship medal in her home town with a 4-1 win in the quarterfinals against Sabine Winter (GER/11). “I know that Sabine has problems with my serve, that’s an advantage. I also tried to block her forehand because that way I can get into the game better. That worked well from the second game onwards.”
On Sunday 11:20 a.m. there will be a repeat of the 2022 final against Nina Mittelham (D/4) in the semifinals. Polcanova had previously beaten the Swede Christina Kallberg (14) 4-0 in the round of 16.
There were also two successes for “Sonia” in doubles: With Bernadette Szócs (ROU) she defeated the Serbians after a 0-1 set deficit and equalized to 2-2 in the decider, moving into the final with a 3-2 win. The tournament’s No. 2 Barbora Balazova/Hana Matelova (SLK/CZE) will be waiting in the final on Sunday from 3:30 p.m.
Double sensation: Bronze for debutant Maciej
“After we were eliminated in the singles, we swore that we would win a doubles medal. Now we can celebrate bronze,” said European Championship debutant Maciej Kolodziejczyk alongside Vladimir Ursu (MDA) after the sensational 3-0 victory in the doubles quarter-finals over the Slovenians Peter Hribar/Deni Kozul (SLO). In the semis they were defeated by top-seeded Frenchmen Felix and Alexis Lebrun with a clear 0-3. For Kolodziejczyk, it was the first podium place after seven junior European Championship medals.
In the men’s singles, top-seeded Felix Lebrun (F) was defeated 3-4 by German Benedikt Duda who plays versus teammate Dimitrij Ovtcharov. Truls Moregard is also in the semi-finals after a 4-2 win against his Swedish teammate Anton Kallberg. His opponent: Alexis Lebrun (F).
