Bronze Table Tennis Championship for Bolkanova / Gardus Mixed Duo in Munich

The mixed Austrian pair suffered a 2:3 defeat against Szöcs/Ionescu of Romania in the semifinals.

Sophia Bolkanova/ Robert Gardus won the bronze medal in the mixed competition at the European Table Tennis Championships in Munich. The duo of ÖTTV lost in Monday’s semi-final against second-seeded duo Bernadette Szucks/Ovidiu Ionescu of Romania, despite leading the set 2-0, still 2-3 (5,7, -9, -7, -6). There is no duel over third place.

for Bolkanova She was a private duel in the semi-finals, but she met her doubles partner Szöcs. The sticking point of the match was the third set, as the Austrians gave up their 4-0 lead by 2-0 and enabled the Romanians to come back. After five sets and four match points saved was a must Bolkanova and Gardos, who collaborated on the 2024 Olympics.

Szöcs/Ionescu meets French top seed duo Yuan Jianan/Emmanuel Lebesson in the final match of the evening (19:20). They didn’t give Barbora Palazova/Lubomir Bestige of Slovakia a chance in the semi-finals and beat them 3:0 (4, 6, 12).

Meanwhile, Amelie Solga and Andreas Levinko celebrated their group victories in the individual qualifiers, and qualified directly for the 1/32 final. Solja defeated Slovenian Sara Tokic 3:0 (6,6,3) and also booked her second win, as did Andreas Levinko, who beat Serbian Zsolt Beto 3:2 after a 1:2 delay and a thrilling fifth set (-9,5, -9). ,6,12) hit. Alexander Chen had no chance at 0:3 (-5, -9, -5) against Italian Jordi Piccolin and needs a win on Tuesday to go up.

David Serdaroglu conceded his second loss 0:3 (-8, -6, -6) against Czech Jiri Martinko and will play again on Tuesday. In the late afternoon, Caroline Misek played Zdina Plaskova of the Czech Republic for a direct promotion to the 1/32 final. There then also put Sophia Bolkanova (3) Robert Gardos (14) and Danielle Hapson (26) on Wednesday.

(APA)