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Wed 2nd May, Pools Day One
Steve Cubbins in Riccione |
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Men's E:
Hungary 2-2 Slovakia
The only tie of
the day came in the last match to finish, with Robert Dobai and Marek
Zvoncek pulling Slovakia back from two down. Hungary, with two 3-0 wins,
won on points countback, which may prove important at the end of
tomorrow ...
 "We
thought we were going to have the same team as last year, but Andras
Torok, who's 80 in the world now, is injured so we've brought in a
junior.
"We have a tough match tomorrow against Switzerland, who are strong this
year. With Andras in the team it would have been close matches all the
way down, but it will be a hard match for us now."
Hungary |
Women's
C: Wales 3-0 Norway
After her earlier exploits, just failing
to complete a comeback against Slovakia, Jenny Wright picked up a win as
Wales won again to set themselves up for a possible group-decider
against Belgium tomorrow.
 "I've
been off injured since October and only started hitting a few weeks ago,
but it's not the same as playing matches, so I'll probably be knackered
by the end of the week!
"I beat Linda [Hruzikova] last year so it was disappointing to lose, but
at least the team won and I felt quite good in the second match against
Norway."
 Wales |
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Men's B:
Netherlands 3-1 Ireland
A few eyebrows were raised when Lucas
Buit was elevated to number two on the Dutch team. Well, more than
that really, as six teams actually raised objections to the change of
order.
But the facts spoke for themselves as veteran Lucas scored an impressive
straight-games win over the resurgent John Rooney, who Ireland had
considered their banker, as the Dutch came through to win 3-1.
 "This
is my 21st European Teams, so I've seen a few people come and go. I keep
myself fit, and I've been playing well, beating Dylan twice and LJ once
recently.
" I always seem to play well in this event and I just love playing for
my country. We knew this match against Ireland was the key for us to
finish at least second in the group."
 Netherlands |
Men's D:
Italy 4-0 Austria
The biggest cheers
of the night came as home fans crowded around courts one and two to see
Italy complete a great day with a 4-0 win over Austria. The noise level
was maybe helped by the vicinity of the large TV showing the Milan v Man
Utd match, but Italian number one Simome Roca raised the roof
when he beat Aqeel Rehman to put Italy 2-0 up.
 "We
lost to Austria last year so this was a great result for us. It was a
match we hoped, rather than expected to win, but at 2-0 it looks good
for us.
"Tomorrow's match against Denmark is now very important, if we win that
we win the pool."
 Italy |
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Comebacks of the Day:
Martin
Stepan (Cze) bt Ilan Oren (Isr)
5/9, 4/9, 10/8, 9/3, 10/9 (75m)
From 2-0 down Czech number one Martin
Stepan scored an important win, putting his team 2-0 up against Israel.
At 8/4 up in the fifth the comeback looked complete, but Ilan staged a
mini-comeback of his own to get his first and only matchball at 9-all,
but it was Martin's day ...
 "It
was a lucky comeback. I just tried to cut out my unforced errors, I knew
it wasn't my day for playing shots so it was just run and hit. I sensed
that Ilan wasn't as fit as in his junior days, so time was playing for
me today."
Czech Republic |
Renan Lavigne (Fra) bt
Borja Golan (Esp)
6/9, 9/7, 2/9, 9/7, 9/3 (102m)
Renan has only
played at number one for the French team three times before, and it 2-1
and 6-0 down to Borja Golan it wasn't looking good.
Giving everything, as he always does, Renan refused to budge, clawed his
way back into the match and set the French on their way to a 4-0 win and
who knows, maybe yet another final ...
 "When
I was down in the fourth I just told myself to give it a go, I knew that
every game counts, so it was just a case of playing and seeing what
happened ..."
France |
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Women's
C: Slovakia 2-1 Scotland
Linda leaves it late for Slovakia
Linda Hrukizova deserves a good rest tonight. Having already won 3-2
against Wales to give Slovakia a consolation point she was back on court
just four hours later in a decider against Scotland.
In the closest match of the day Henrieta Loksova gave the Slovaks the
lead, beating Lisa Aitken - "I played badly, my feet were glued to the
floor!" - 3/1.
 Claire
Kidd levelled the match with a 3/1 win over Anete Paprnakova, leaving it
up to top strings Linda and Frania Gillen-Buchert to decide the tie.
It was looking good for Slovakia to start with as Linda took a 9/2, 9/5
lead. Frania was looking tired, but came out at a faster pace in the
third and turned the tables completely. The Scot took the next two 9/1,
9/6 to level.
The fifth was competitive all the way, a real battle with some tough
ralles. Linda recovered from 1/3 to lead 5/3, Frania fought back to lead
7/5, but Linda surged again, taking it 9/7 after 63 minutes and skipping
off court, clearly delighted.
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"I had a good lead in the
first, 8-something up, but when it got to 8-all just had to try
and stay composed. I didn't get a good start in the third, I was just
trying to catch up, but I got it back in the fourth."
 Scotland
"I'm not tired, I'm happy! I had a lotof energy at the start, but then I
was mentally out of it until I got a bit of luck in the fifth, so I'm
happy!"
 Slovakia |
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Men's D:
Italy 4-0 Isle of Man
The first day's play kicked off with the
host nation Italy, led by new National Coach Marcus Berrett,
recording a comfortable 4-0 win on the show courts against minnows Isle
of Man.
 "I've
been in Milan for two years and I became National Coach in September so
this is my first championship with the team. Our target is just to do
better than last year, we were 18th in the men's and 8th in the women's
so an improvement on those is what we're looking for."
 Italian National Coach |
 "We
all warmed up on the glass court, it's the first time any of us have
played on one, so it's a great experience for the two that got to play
their matches on there.
"It's hard for us to cope about these guys, they control the ball so
well, but once you're on there you can't give up, there's a little demon
in your head that makes you chase one more ball.
"I went 4-0 up in the first, so I guess you could call it a shaky start
for the Italians!
"We're just trying not to finish last, but even if we do we'll have
enjoyed it, and we'll be the last ones out of the bar on Saturday night.
 IoM #1 |
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Women's
C: Wales 2-1 Slovakia
Making a return to
European teams action after an absence of several years, Karen Leach led
Wales to victory over Slovakia. Karen and Natalie Pritchard put Wales
2-0 up, but Jenny Wright's comeback from two down against Linda
Hruzikova fell just short as she went down 9/6 in the fifth.
 "I've
missed about eight of these championships, with injury and having a
family, and this is definitely my last one. It's a pity we're without
Tegwen who's injured, but we're going to give it a go to finish as high
as we can."
 Wales |
Linda pulls one back for Slovakia |
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Men's E:
Switzerland 4-0 Greece
It was a comfortable start for the
Swiss, with coach John Williams taking on a dual role this year
as he made his on-court debut for the team, taking on fellow SquashSite
contributor Petros Tzamaloukas.
For the record, John, playing at number two behind new European Junior
Champion Nicolas Mueller, won 9/1, 9/0, 9/0, Mueller won 9/3, 9/5, 9/6,
Marcel Straub won 9/2, 9/7, 9/0 and Maerco Daetwyler performed the
dreaded whitewash.
 "That
was my first ever match wearing the Swiss shirt, but after all I've been
here for ten years and I'm going to be here for the forseeable future.
"In some respects it's nice to be able to lead by example, and it makes
the team stronger. We're keen to push for a top eight finish this year
..."
Switzerland |
"Our aim is to get into the 13-20 group, a little lower than in previous
years but te have a new team this year, there was a big gap between
generations so we have three new players who are here mainly for the
experience.
"We have to finish third in the group, we didn't expect to win today's
matches but we hope to win tomorrow against Russia and Slovakia which
would give us the third place we need to get into that group."
 Greece |
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Women's
D:
Ireland 3-0 Russia
Men's E: Slovakia 4-0 Russia
It's the biggest
country in terms of size, and this year Russia has introduced a women's
team for the first time. They had a hard task, up against a strong Irish
squad, and although they only amassed three points between them on the
glass court, it was a great first-time experience.
The men picked up 36 points between them, but couldn't muster a game as
they lost 4-0 to Slovakia.
 "This
is the first year we've entered a women's team, and playing Ireland was
like a masterclass for them, they've never played at anything like that
level before. But it was pleasing how they played, like Kate for
instance, she fought every point, so we're not losing it's just that
we're not winning!
"For the men it's in the brain, they've been here before, they know they
can win, but it's just a question of doing it on court. We'll finish
last in the group, but after that we hope to play our best in the
playoffs and to be stronger than last year. Everybody wants to win, we
want to finish as high as possible."
 Russia |
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