On day two of Group 2, Switzerland managed a memorable win over previous European Mixed Team Championships medalists Poland with dominant 4-1 scoreline.
Switzerland bounced back from their defeat against Belgium yesterday. Although they lost the first match in the mixed doubles, they were able to secure all other matches after that. Christian Kirchmayr won the first point for Switzerland in the men’s singles against Michal Rogalski after a thriller match of 1 hour and 10 minutes.
- I felt like he got the better start for sure. I was still trying to find my game in the first game and from there on it was just a battle. I think we were quite even. In the end I got a bit tense, and I think he as well. It was quite a similar game and all the rallies had a similar pattern. It was a bit of luck in the end that I got through.
Jenjira Stadelmann and Caroline Racloz won the final match for Switzerland in three games against Wiktoria Dabczynska / Anastasia Khomich. They were already looking forward to the final tie against Russia.
- Tomorrow is going to be a tough match for us. But we’ll give everything that we have. We go on court, we fight, we go all in!
Belgium no match for Russia: 5-0
Similar to yesterday, the Russian team dominated again and is one step closer to winning Qualification Group 2. The Belgians had no answer to the Russian power and had a tough tie after yesterday’s win over Switzerland. Lianne Tan lost the women’s singles against Evgeniya Kosetskaya and was not happy with her performance.
- She played a lot better than me today and I think she was more ready for the game. I have to see after the game and think about it again, but I think I have some points to work on for the next tournaments.
Vladimir Ivanov/ Ivan Sozonov from Russia played the men’s doubles against newly formed pair Julien Carraggi / Jona Van Nieuwkerke from Belgium. As the highest ranked men’s doubles pair in the group, they won easily but had some nice words for their opponents.
- They played well I think. They strived for the whole match, but they need more experience in the big tournaments. For those guys it was a very good match against us and for us of course it was great to show our badminton skills and preparation for next year.
For the final day of the group tomorrow:
Russia vs Switzerland 10:00am (local time)
Belgium vs Poland 15:00 (local time)