European Team Championships 2006

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Double Dutch ...

The schedule had a Holland-Germany double-header lined up for the evening of day one. Not only were the men and women playing each other at the same time, on adjacent courts no less.

The Dutch women, so narrowly runners-up last year, had little trouble, but then with world number one Vanessa Atkinson on first, followed by world number 14 Annelize Naude, the odds were always with the Dutch as the duly completed a full set of 3/0 wins.

It was third string Orla Noom who earned the praises of team coach JW Koopman though: "It was the performance of the day, for sure, especially since she hasn't been feeling her best in the last few days."



The men's match was closer. First on were LJ Anjema against new European U19 Champion Simon Rosner and Tommy Berden against Simon Baker.

Anjema wasted no time in beating Rosner for the loss of five points, but Berden, returning to action after a time out due to a hand injury (and marriage, of course!), struggled to take the first game 10/8, falling awkwardly on his knee and needing an injury timeout.

The former Dutch champion shrugged that off to take the next two easily to put his team 2-0 up.

Stefan Leifels pulled one back for the Germans with a 3/1 win over Dylan Bennett, but the match was decided off-court as the German number four was deemed ineligible due to a registration mix-up, and the match wasn't without its disputes ....

After a predictable defeat against Finland in the first match on the glass court, hosts Austria made amends in the final match on that court as they beat Israel 4-0
to put them in a good position to progress from Pool C.

"I tried hard to stay with Olli [Tuominen] in the first game this morning, but he was just too strong physically.

"I'm not training enough at the moment and we were unlikely to win against Finland so it was important to save something for the Israel match.

"It was nice to play on the glass court, I won the Austrian Nationals [his fourth] on one four weeks ago. It was pleasing to win that, coming back after two years out."
 
Leopold Csaska

Dutch coach Sjef van der Heijden remonstrates ...

Manuela Manetta doesn't do short.

The Italian number one had a 75 minute match this morning, and an 83-minute one this evening.

She ended up losing them both 3-2, but while the rest of the Italian team went down 2-1 to Switzerland, they recovered ion the last match of the day to beat hosts Austria in front of a passionate crowd and the local TV cameras.

Against Austria Manuela was playing the Austrian phenomenon that is Pamela Pancis, and although she pulled back from 4/7 to 7-all in the decider, Pancis eventually had two too many delicate boasts with which she had won many points during the match.

"I always seem to have long games," said the ever-cheerful Manetta afterwards, "but it's not even as if I like running, I'd love to win them quickly!"

England/Scotland encounters at any sport are always going to arouse the emotions, and while England fulfilled their contract as top seeds and defending champions in three of the four matches, John White didn't half make James Willstrop struggle to claim a 4-0 win for the favourites for the title.

You could make a case for the cooler conditions on the showcourt suiting either player, but it was White who took the early advantage, and when he led 2/1 and 7/1 an upset looked on the cards.

But Willstrop recovered to level, and from 5-5 in the fifth pulled away as White flung himself around the court, desperately trying to earn a point for Scotland.

Nick Matthew, Lee Beachill, and debutant Peter Barker all recorded comfortable wins - Beachill inflicting a 27-0 on Harry Leitch. "It wasn't that Harry played poorly," commented Matthew, "but Lee was really up for it, wanted to get on court and played really well."

"It was desperate measures for desperate times at the end. I probably should have been saving myself for the other matches, but I really wanted to get a win for Scotland over England, it doesn't happen that often. "This week should be good for me, I'll get four or five good games - James today, Goughy and Borja tomorrow, and then we'll see how the pools work out. "My training is going well in the USA, but I'm not getting the amount of competitive games I'd like, so this will be good preparation for Liverpool next week." John White (Scotland)

"We were together until 1993 but of course, we're all good friends still, just one big family.

"We played two or three years ago and finished 13th, but the Czech team is much stronger than us so we didn't expect to win today.

"I've travelled to play a few tournaments in Prague, but the other girls mainly just play at home.
 
Linda Hruzikova (Slovakia)

New Boys Turkey: Arton, Selatin, Hursit, Zulfi, Gunal

This was a debut appearance for Turkey in the Euro Teams. All of their players live and work in Germany, so it was no surprise to see the German team in attendance for this match.

At number one Jan Koukal survived a real scare - saving three match-balls in a fifth game tie-breaker against Zulfi Kan. Zulfi has all the shots, and a lovely touch at the front of the court, but it looked as if Jan's fitness was telling before he relaxed to let Zulfi back in and oh-so nearly paid the price, coming from 0-5 down in the fifth and making an incredible recovery to get one of Zulfi's dropshots at 8-9 matchball down.

"When I took the second and third games I thought that was it, but he started trying again and played some pretty good shots. "I haven't done enough training recently, so I need the rest now, I'm exhausted! "We wanted to make the top twelve, but three of our guys are injured which makes it tough for us. Denmark tomorrow is the key match for us." Jan Koukal (Czech Republic)

Zulfi also happens to be the coach of Simon Rosner, the German number one and new European U19 Champion. In 1993 he was a quarter-finalist at the World Juniors in Hong Kong, and also reached a British Junior Open quarter-final. He never joined the circuit, but plays German Bundesliga for Wartsburg Lingfield.

"Jan took it a bit easy, but then I got back into it and it was almost too late. I put in a good drop shot on match ball and I was surprised he got it, I should have put another one in then and finished it off. Zulfi Kan (Turkey)

It was a comfortable enough start for England, looking to claim their 28th consecutive title, but meeting a top twenty player in the first pool match was a shock for Vicky ...

"It was a good start for us, pleased to be here and glad to get the first match under our belts.

"I'd seen Celia at tournaments before, but never seen her play. She hits the ball well and this should be good experience for her."

Jenny Duncalf (England)

"It came as a bit of a shock when I saw I was playing Isabelle in the first match. We'd expect to play teams like France in say the semi-finals, and first pool matches are meant to be easier than this!

"Still, I guess that's the price you pay for being number one."

Vicky Botwright (England)

"He hit a few winners and I hit a few tins in the third, I suddenly found myself a few points down so thought it was better to start again in the fourth. Everyone else won 3-0 so that's not bad.

"We play the Isle of Man later, so it looks good for the group, but the Belgium v Italy match will probably be crucial in this group.

Angus Kirkland (Ireland)

"We played two years ago in Rennes, although this is my first appearance for the team. We're just trying to do as well as we can in round one - we've just lost 4-0 to Belgium and it doesn't get any easier.

"Then we'll be trying to beat some of the other 'smaller' countries in round two. It's good to be back in these championships, and we're also looking forward to the Nations Cup in Warsaw."

Anthony Brindle (Isle of Man)

"We're just not used to this this pace and standard of play, but we're happy to come here and compete to our best and get the experience.

"We finished 20th out of 23 in Rennes, so our aim is to at least equal that.

"All of the team are Gibraltar born and bred, there's only about 100-150 players in the colony, total population is only 30,000.

Nick Dehro (Gibraltar)

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