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European Nations Challenge Cup
30 Sep - 02 Oct 2010, Warsaw, Poland |
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Finals:
Men: Ukraine 0-2 Serbia
Valerii Fedoruk 1-3 Daniel Zilic
11-5 9-11 1-11 1-11
Ruslan Sorochinsk 2-3 Dennis Drenjovski 11-8 11-3 8-11 9-11 10-12
Kostiantyn Rybalchenk - Ivan Djordjevic
Women: Cyprus 1-2 Poland
Christina Vrahimi 3-1 Magda Kamiñska
11-7 11-6 8-11 11-6
Vaso Karasava 0-3 Dominika Witkowska
11-13 4-11 1-11
Antoinia Aristodemo 0-3 Anna Jurkun
2-11 5-11 5-11
Serbia take ENCC title
Dan Zilic reports
This is going to be short since we have to hit the bar since
we WON the finals against Ukraine!
I started off nervously against Valeri and lost the first
game 11:5. Second went a bit better and I wasn't quite as
nervous, but it was touch and go but I managed to win it
11:9 and make Valeri work hard for his points. Game three
went to plan and I decided to keep it tight and to
cross-court lob the ball as much as I could and took a 10:0
lead and won 11:1. Same story in the fourth, managed to get
an early lead and win the game 11:2, and therewith the match
3:1.
Dennis had lost to Ruslan dramatically in the earlier rounds
and it was always going to be tight between the two. Ruslan
wasn't moving quite as easily as before, but well enough to
hurt Dennis and take the first game 11:8, followed by a more
sobering 11:3. game three was all or nothing for Dennis and
he stepped up, took more risks and that paid dividends, he
won 11:8. Game four was really tense but Dennis, at times
looking like a beaten-up boxer, kept coming back and
miraculously won the game 11:9.
Game five was probably the most dramatic I have watched in a
while. Ruslan was still diving through the court but Dennis
wasn't phased and he kept the pressure up. The crowd were
really loving it, especially as Ruslan defended a matchball
at 9:10 down to force a tie-break! Dennis won the tie-break,
on a clear stroke, and Serbia took an unassailable 2:0 lead
and won the ENCC - the nation's biggest win to date (at
least in Squash).
Ivan Djordjevic was spared having to go on court and there
were plenty of jubilations! The Serbian women's support
during the match was terrific and the team is as happy as
could be!
The Polish women also surprised (me at least) by winning the
finals 2:1.
The Cypriots took a well-deserved lead after the third
string won 3:1 - but from then on it was one-way traffic.
Poland won 3:0 at both first and second string and scored a
famous home victory. The men's team wasn't quite as lucky
when they were narrowly defeated by Ukraine II, whom they
had beaten earlier in the competition.
That puts a fantastic even to an end - it was the last of
its kind and has definitely served its purpose. The quality
of Squash was really good and it was a real pleasure to see
the enthusiasm and quality with which these small nations
played.
That is all from Warsaw - now off to beer, beer, and more
beer!
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Day Three
- Semi-Finals
Dan Zilic reports
Things went as expected in the men's main draw and
Ukraine I and Serbia are through to the finals.
Ukraine overcame Poland I a little easier than some of us
had expected, but after Valeri Fedoruk beat Marcin Kozik in
three straight games, there was little hope left for the
Polish. Ruslan wrapped things up beating local hope Wojciech
Nowisz 3:0 after 45 minutes. Dead-rubber was also won by the
impressive Konstiantyn Rybalchenk.
Team Serbia got a off to a good start after I managed to win
3:0 against Drandalush Sergiy 30. Dennis Drenjovski was
worked really hard by Denys Podvornyi but squeezed out a
tight 3:1. Podvornyi moves through the court really well and
should be close to the top of the first team if he continues
to play this way. The dead-rubber was won by the Ukraine as
we rested Ivan for the finals, so Dejan got his final run
out at the tournament but lost 0:2.
In other news Gibraltar beat Monaco and Estonia beat
Luxembourg. The tie between Luxembourg and Estonia looked
interesting and matches were tight, but the Estonians are a
tough crowd and don't back down easily. The Croatians were
beaten by Poland II and will be looking to do far better at
next year's event. They now face Liechtenstein while Poland
II plays Malta.
The finals should be good and are streamed live at 5pm.
I am on first and hope to put us ahead, while Dennis, our
number one, will try and replicate his form from the first
match and this time round hopefully convert one of his
matchballs! Even if he doesn't, we still have Ivan. the
Serbian powerhouse, at two and he is always one for a big
match.
The women are playing as we speak and the tie between Serbia
and Monaco for seventh is tied 1:1. The women's final is on
at one and I expect plenty of vociferous Polish support.
They have a real chance to do well against the Cypriots,
especially if their number two can put them ahead.
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Official Site
Women's Playoffs
Men's Playoffs
Men's
Semis:
Ukraine v Poland
Serbia v Ukraine2
Women's Final:
Cyprus v Poland
More Photos |
Quarter-Finals
Dan Zilic
reports
First of all apologies for not being able, once again, to
cover much of the women's event. I only got to see our
ladies (Serbia) play against our big rivals
Croatia in the 5 - 8 bracket and it was great drama.
Our number two Miljana Mrvic beat Paulina Rados 3:0, but
then the tables were reversed when Jelena Dutina lost
against an impressive Josipa Persun by the same scoreline.
Katarina Milas, a tricky left-hander, beat our very own Ines
Starcevic, recovering from a 1:2 deficit in the process, to
win the tie for the Croatians and reach the 5 - 6 play-off
against Ukraine.
The women's finals will be contested between the Polish
team (who beat their second team 3:0 in the semis) and
Cyprus. Cyprus lost the first match at second string 2:3
but won their other two matches comfortably. Looking at the
results the Cypriots are favoured to win and the Polish are
a little unlucky that the second string matches are last,
since this looks to be the tie the Polish might be favoured
to win and it would be good for them to start with a win.
On to the men's quarters which were, simply put,
fantastic!
First of all they were great for Serbia - Ivan put us
1:0 ahead after storming past Luxembourg's Daniel
Kaiser with some dominating play. Dennis was up against
Daniel Hutchines, which looked like a tricky enough tie -
but Dennis played his best Squash of the tournament and beat
Hutchines for points. Especially in game two Dennis looked
unbeatable hitting nicks for fun. As we were 2:0 up I was
rested, Dejan played, and Luxembourg scored a consolation
point at third string.
While our tie was over all other ties hadn't progressed past
the second match, and they were all incredibly close.
Ukraine showed their strength in depth when their second
(!!) team beat a favoured Estonian team. Both Pettai
brothers lost by a 1:3 scoreline for Estonia at first and
second string (and funnily enough both lost the first game
9:11). These were both tough matches with little in them but
the Ukranians really are a physically strong side and give
their opponents little to work with. Not being happy with
two won matches Drandalush Sergiy won the dead rubber too
for a very solid 3:0 win.
Hosts Poland were under pressure against an
experienced (okay - they are probably the oldest team)
Monaco team. I don't think the Monaco number two,
Nicloas Gaillan, had lost a match in the tournament so far.
Very clever player with plenty of interesting angles and a
never say die attitude. Marcin Karowski withstood the attack
though and grinded out a tough 3:2 victory putting Poland
ahead.
Wojciech Nowisz was probably expected to wrap things up for
Poland against Christian Billard, but the Monaco number one
had other ideas and took a 2:0 lead. Wojciech is a hell of a
fighter though, won the third and was giving it his all in
the fourth game tie-break. covering an immense amount of
ground and spurred on by the partisan crowd I thought he'd
sneak the game and win it in the fifth, but Billard did
incredibly well and showed great resilience to win the match
16:14 in the fourth. That was all the joy the Monaco team
would get out of this draw though as Marcin Kozik left Raph
Daney no chance at third string and only dropped eight
points.
Best match of the quarters though was in the Ukraine
vs Gibraltar tie. After Konstiantyn Robialchyk put
his team up by beating Christian Navas 3:0, the two number
ones - Ruslan Sorochinsk and Anthony Brindle - took to the
court. I didn't watch the whole match but this was the best
squash we have seen so far. Anthony, who is twenty-one and
is hitting with Jessie Engelbrecht and Ben Ford over in
England I am told, was really up to take the game to Ruslan,
who was matchball down in his first match against Dennis
Drenjovski already but miraculously recovered.
Anyway, Ruslan started the better with his error-free
smooth-moving game but Anthony hit back, playing some very
solid and fast-paced squash. All games were tight but
Anthony was prepared to take slightly higher risks and was
more dominant around the T. Ruslan picked up some incredible
shots but still found himself 1:2 and 2:7 down. The Ukranian
is so hard to break down though and it was suddenly 8:8
again. Nonetheless, Anthony re-focused and held matchballs
at 10:9 and another one or two in the tie-break. At one
point I thought the match was over but Ruslan pulled out
incredible gets and Anthony hit a vital tin at matchball up
and it was Ruslan who edged it out 15:13.
Game five was over relatively quickly, not because Anthony
was tired, but his hand cramped up. He received a three
minute injury break (I was told this was a refereeing
mistake, you don't get injury breaks for cramps) but it was
to no avail as Ruslan kept the pressure up and Anthony
struggled with his hand. A superb match that sealed the tie
for Ukraine, who rounded things off with a quick win at
third string, too.
Tomorrow's matches promise some more great Squash and
unfortunately things kick off at 10am again! After almost
beating the first team in the group phase Serbia is favoured
to beat the second Ukraine team, but the guys don't mess
around and there won't be any easy matches for us.
Ukraine will face Poland and I actually think Poland might
beat the Ukranians at third string, and we are starting with
third string, followed by first string. The Ukranians are
very strong at 1 & 2 but the Polish are real fighters and
might be able to pull off a surprise if they are 1:0 up and
cheered on by a large and vocal crowd.
We'll find out tomorrow. Finals are on at 5pm btw.
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Day Two
morning update
Dan Zilic reports
Most men's groups
were decided already before play began this morning.
Serbia, as expected, ended second in Group A behind the
Ukraine (who beat Malta this morning). Our super-sub
Dejan Skrbic got a run-out today Gibraltar II and after
taking game one in style, lost to Julian Teuma 1:3. At that
point we had won the tie already though.
Luxembourg beat Poland II 3:0 to top the Group
B in front of Gibraltar I. Stephane Ayache had a long
encounter against the Polish number three, Tomasz Abramowski
(who probaby should have been playing at first string), with
two games out of four going to the tie-break (one ended
18:16).
Poland I remained in top-spot in Group C after
beating Latvia convincingly, and Ukraine II gave the
guys from Liechtenstein little to work with, beating them
3:0 and remaining in second spot therewith.
Group D was probably the only group where there was still
some room for movement in top places as Croatia , who
unexpectedly lost to Monaco yesterday, had to play
front-runners Estonia. After two matches it was 1:1
after Croatia lost at second string 2:3 but Robert Petrovic
beat one of the Pettai brothers 3:0 at first string.
Unfortunately for the Croats, Estonian Paul Piik was too
tough a competitor for Srdan Maximovic and won the deciding
tie 3:1. Fair play though to the Croats who put in a good
fighting performance this morning but will nonetheless be
disappointed.
The Quarters
Quarter-finals are next with Ukraine facing Gibraltar I
- the match at first string between Ruslan Sorochinsk and
Anthony Brindle will be the one to watch. Serbia is
taking on Luxembourg in a tie that features three
Daniels: Kaiser and Hutchines for Luxembourg and Zilic for
Serbia (none of them are playing each other though).
Estonia is playing against the tough second team from the
Ukraine and Poland I is playing Monaco for a
place in the semis.The Women
This morning I also got to watch some women's squash for
once. Poland was playing Estonia to determine the
group-winner of Group B and I was asked to referee after the
teams demanded a new referee for their match following Anna
Jurkin's close five-game win against Allis Allas at second
string. The next match was played in good spirit though and
was an entertaining affair between Poland's number one
player, Dominika Wittkowska, and Estonia's number one, Diana
Leguss.It was Dominika, thanks to her good touch and clever
play, that came through on top 3:1. The dead rubber was also
won by Poland. Magda Kaminska beat Reele Komi in a good
quality match by three games to two. Poland I now face
Poland's second team in the semis, while the Estonian trio
takes on favourites Cyprus.
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Complete Pool
Results
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Official Site
Day One Results
Live Results
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Day One in Warsaw
Dan Zilic reports
 So
this is the last edition of the European Nations
Challenge Cup, I think it used to be called "Small
Nations Cup". From next year onwards the ESF is making some
changes to the format and I understand there will be the
European Team Championships for the best sixteen
countries and a B-event for all the rest.
This is the first time I am taking part and I have to say
this is a great little event and reminds me of what makes
Squash great: a lovely club with great courts, some really
good and dedicated tournament organizers, players from all
over Europe who might not be the best players you have ever
seen, but keen enough to take some time off work, travel
down to Poland and play their heart out for their country.
This year there are 16 men and 8 women team - though some
countries have two teams represented. Ukraine are
favourites to win the men's title and Cyprus are
favourites in the women's event. To be honest - I hadn't
heard much of Ukranian Squash until I saw them finish
seventh in the European Club Championships (and only
featuring one foreigner, Hadrian Stiff playing at one, while
doing so).
Unluckily for Team Serbia - the team I am
representing at third string - we ended up in a group with
the Ukraine. This is mainly due to the way the seedings here
work and realistically we should have been seeded in the top
four, but we weren't too bothered anyway. Incidentally, and
I don't want to sound too biased here, we had a pretty epic
encounter with the Ukrainians. Dennis Drenjovski
played against Ruslan Sorochinsk for 72 minutes in
what had to be the match of the day.
Dennis won the first game 15:13 and we thought he would
falter after that, but he took everyone by surprise and won
the next 11:0!. Ruslan came back into the match afterwards
and won games three and four, defending one matchball in
game four. Then it was Dennis's turn to defend three
matchballs at 7:10 down in the fifth, but he eventually
succumbed to the Ukranian 10:12.
We went on to lose 1:2 against the Ukraine, Ivan lost at
second string and I won at third, but it was a hell of an
encounter.
Gibraltar and Luxembourg also had a really
tough encounter in Group B. Gibraltar's Anthony Brindle
beat Danny Hutchines 3:2, but then it was
Luxembourg's turn to win in five at second string. They
closed the match out with a convincing 3:0 win by
Stephane Ayache.
Hopes for a home-winner remained in tact when Poland
beat Ukraine's second team 2:1 in Group C, coming
back from a tough 2:3 defeat at first string. Group D saw a
small surprise when former winners Croatia were
beaten by Monaco 2:1 and will now need to beat
Estonia (who in turn had beaten Monaco) to get through
to the round of the last eight.
I wasn't able to watch much of the women's Squash other than
our own Team Serbia, who battled on gamely against Poland
and Estonia, but were beaten both times 3:0. If Poland beat
Estonia in Group B tomorrow I can see them go through to
give Cyprus a run for their money in the finals.
Other than that the vibe here is really good - the food has
been great and there seems to have been quite a lot of local
media interest, at least judging by the amount of camera
crews that were popping up throughout the day.
Anyway, that is all for now. Good night from Warsaw!
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Fourteen
Nations head to Poland
Representatives of 14 European countries will meet between
30th September and 2nd October in Warsaw to play in European
team squash championships. The games will be part of the
European Nations Challenge Cup (ENCC) tournament.
In the 3 day tournament at the Warsaw Kahuna Club
courts, 24 three player strong teams, including 16 men’s
teams and 8 women’s teams, will play during the ENCC
games.
National teams will represent the following countries:
Poland, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Serbia, Russia, Ukraine,
Malta, Cyprus, Isle of Man, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein,
Monaco and Gibraltar. ENCC cycle tournaments are team
championships with the participation of countries where
squash is played as a discipline of sport.
“The 3 days on the courts will be exciting. Previous year’s
champions, the representatives of Ukraine, will have to face
the challenge of playing such teams as Gibraltar who, in the
2009 finals, bade farewell to gold only after a keen
struggle ending with one of the representatives’ injury”,
says Sławek Nowisz from Kahuna Club, hosting the
European championships this year. “This year we expect a
similar, equally good level of matches”, adds Mr. Nowisz.
Poland Double Up
Poland will be represented by 2 men’s and 2 women’s teams.
In the first teams there are representatives of Warsaw: the
current Polish champion, Wojtek Nowisz, and the
runner-up to championship, Marcin Karwowski, as well
as Marcin Kozik from Zabrze and Maciej
Maciantowicz from Kraków.
In the lead of Polish women’s team is Dominika Witkowska,
the current Polish champion, supported by the runner-up to
championship, Anna Jurkun, Anna Sikorska and
Magdalena Kamińska.
Strong Competition
Although the representatives of Poland are at the top of the
Polish Squash Federation rankings, the competition is going
to be tough. The Ukrainians, last year’s winners of
men’s tournament, have confirmed their participation, as
well as some strong teams from Russia, Cyprus, and
Gibraltar.
The Polish women’s team will have to match representatives
of Cyprus who won the silver medal last year, and the
Estonians, who ended the Pole’s dream about the bronze medal
in 2009.
The Format
The ENCC Cup is quite a challenge for competitors. On day
one and day two, the squads are going to compete in the
group phase, and then there will be a day of finals, when
the best teams will compete for medals, playing in the cup
system. Such an arrangement of matches means that the
winners will have to prove they are truly fit. Each meeting
consists of three matches, where the players continue until
3 sets are won, and the score in each set is 11 points. The
winning squad is the one which has won the most matches
The matches will be played every day between 10 a.m. and 7
p.m.. Men’s finals will take place on Saturday at 5 p.m.
Women’s teams will play for gold on the same day at 1 p.m.
The full timetable of matches is available at the
championship website.
Polish Progress
The Polish national team played well during international
ENCC cycle events. It had its first success at the
international tournament in 2003, when the men’s team took
the third place. Further success came a little later, in
2006 and 2008, when the ladies’ team won silver medals, and
in 2007, when the ladies took the third place in the
tournament. Last year the men’s team took the 7th, and the
ladies’ team took the 4th place.
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Playing Schedule
Live Results
Official Site
Men's Squads
Women's Squads |
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