Caldas de Rainha, Portugal hosts Group 3 of the European Mixed Team Championships Qualification stage.
Three team matches in three days will take place for the four sides in Group 3 from the 9-12 December. Group 3 consists of four teams with hosts Portugal have been drawn alongside Switzerland, Iceland and the Netherlands.
The winner of the group at the end of the three days will qualify for the finals in Copenhagen, Denmark on the 13-17 February.
Opening days matches
Group 3 matches are taking place at the High Performance Centre in Caldas de Raninha Portugal. Play will begin on the 9th December with the hosts beginning their campaign with a match against Switzerland with Netherlands taking on Iceland on the opening day.
Check out Saturday and Sunday’s schedule here.
The Netherlands come into this one as the favourites. It’s been 12 years since the Dutch reached the semi-finals of this competition but are ranked over 25 places higher than any of their group opponents in the Team rankings.
Strong Doubles team for the Netherlands
Netherlands come into this group as the heavy favourites mainly due to the strength of their doubles line-up.
In the Men’s Doubles the pair of Robin Tabeling and Jelle Maas are a strong pair and currently sit 31st in the World Rankings.
The Mixed Doubles pairings of both Tabeling and Cheryl Seinen and the pair of Imke Van Der Aar and Ruben Jille are both strong opponents which could cause the rest of the group some problems.
Also, in the Men’s Singles, the Dutch will be strong through Mark Caljouw. He’s coming off a Semi-Final defeat in last week’s Scottish Open and will be expected to bounce back with a few wins here.
Teams chosen
Switzerland and the Netherlands have both nominated 7 men and 7 women each for the European Mixed Team Qualification. Switzerland will be looking to Burkart to lead them to victory whilst Netherlands will be looking for big performances from the likes of Mark Caljouw and Robin Tabeling.
Portugal and Iceland have selected a smaller team however. The hosts have selected 10 players for the tournament (5 men and 5 women) whilst Iceland come into the competition with just 6 players (3 men and 3 women) so have selected the least players from Group 3.
Find the players chosen for each team here:
Portugal
Switzerland
Iceland
Netherlands