Favourites
Ease Into Table Tennis Semis
NICOSIA, 5 June 2009 -
Luxembourg will feature two athletes in the semifinals
of the Women's Singles Table Tennis tournament at the
XIII Games of the Small States of Europe. The country's
two Table Tennis athletes took the first place in their
groups, without losing a single set.
The big favorite and
No 51 in the world, Ni Xia Lian of China (representing
Luxembourg) easily took first place in Group A.
Ni Xia Lian will face
Yan Chimei from San Marino, who took first place in
Group B.
The other pair of the
semifinals is between Simone Haan of Luxemburg (who as
well didn’t lose a set in her first four games) and
Cypriot Louiza Kourea.
The semifinals will
take place on Saturday at 10:00, with the final
following at 11:30.
In the Men's Singles a
great semifinal will be held on Saturday morning.
Iceland's Eggert Sthephensen, No 170 in the world, will
face No 28 in the U18 world rankings, Cypriot Marios
Giagkou. In the quarterfinals, the Icelander beat
59-year-old veteran Peter Frommelt from Lichtenstein
3-0. Giagkou beat Traian Ciociu from Luxemburg 3-1.
In the other
semifinal, one of the strong favourites, Daqi Wang of
San Marino, will face Maltese Simone Gerada. Wang beat
his compatriot Marco Vannucci 3-0, while Gerada beat
Gilles Michely 3-0. The semifinals will be held on
Saturday at 10:45, with the final at 12:15.
