Team Netherlands came into group 3 of qualification of #EMTC19 in Copenhagen as overwhelming favourites and the Dutch lived up to that billing this weekend in Caldas da Rainha only dropping a total of two sets across all three teams matches to join the top 8 in February.
The Dutch, minus some of their top stars, were far too strong in today’s winner take all tie against Switzerland running out 5-0 winners for the third consecutive match.
After getting off to the best of starts winning both the mixed doubles and men’s singles in easy fashion the Swiss fought back as Ronja Stern pushed Gayle Mahulette to the limit with the Mahulette eventually prevailing on three sets to put overall tie beyond doubt.
With nothing to loose the Swiss battled hard in the remaining matches but the power and craft of Jelle Maas and Ruben Jille was just too much for Schaller and Kuenzi in the men’s doubles.
-The Swiss put us under some pressure in the later matches said Maas. We were just happy to see Gayle battle hard to win that third point which took some pressure off us in the final matches.
-As a pair we were not at our very best today said Ruben Jille. They figured us out in the second set after we won the opening set easy and in the end we were just happy to win in two games.
The Dutch rounded off their third consecutive 5-0 win thanks to Debora Jille and Cheryl Seinen and Jelle Maas is now looking forward to the finals in Copenhagen.
-We have come close to medals in the past but we think we can certainly go to the finals now and seriously compete for medals. That is our goal for sure and we will be going all out to do that.
The final match of the group proved to be the most competitive of the weekend as both Portugal and Iceland battled it out for bragging rights. In a tie that was full of controversy Portugal finally came through 3-2 as Iceland finished bottom of the group.
