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TODAY in Malmo ... Daily Updates |
Thu 30th, Day THREE:
Everything went pretty much as expected on the final day of
pools action, but that's not to say it wasn't without incident!
The top seeds duly made their way to the semi-finals in both
events, and the usual England v France (men) and England v
Netherlands (women) finals still look likely.
The women's pools finished exactly to seeding, but there were
three 'upsets' in the men's pools.
Wales' men made a return to the top four after missing out last
year, thanks to their opening day draw against Germany, while
Scotland overturned the Swiss in group B and the Czechs outdid
the Hungarians in group C.
Highlight of the day was hosts Sweden fittingly taking the last
place in the men's 5-12 playoffs with a thrilling late-night
victory over Italy, but at the end of the day (well, three
days), it comes down to the playoffs, and be in no doubt, blood
will be spilt tomorrow ...
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Schedule & Results
full results &
playoff schedules
Photo Galleries
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Irish Clean Sweep
 Ireland's
men made it four out of four as they beat Hungary 3-1 to top
pool C and give themselves a chance of breaking into the top
eight.
Key to the success was Arthur Gaskin's recovery from 2-0 down to
beat Daniel Varga, as on the other court Mark Krajcsak was
recording a fine win over Liam Kenny in the top string match.
Derek Ryan and John Rooney saw the Irish home with 3/0 wins to
leave Irish-born Hungarian coach Colin White with mixed feelings
...
 "It's
a good feeling both ways, the team played well and Mark had a
good win over a player ranked higher than him. Our biggest
matches are ahead as we were always realistically targeting the
13-16 positions, and with the team playing well hopefully we can
do well there.
"Being from Ireland I'm pleased for the Irish boys too, and hope
they can do well in the rest of the tournament ..."
 with Irish manager
Simon Parke |
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 Dutch
take top spot
Aiming for their seventh consecutive final, the Netherlands put
out their strongest team against France in the women's pool B
decider and came out 3/0 winners as Annelize Naude, Natalie
Grinham and Vanessa Atkinson all won in straight games, although
all three were tested ...
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England march on
It's not often that England's women drop a game in this event,
let alone a match, so it was no surprise to see them coming
through 3/0 against Ireland to secure top spot in pool A, but it
wasn't quite as straightforward as that ...
Tania Bailey, soon to undergo surgery once more, had little
trouble against Tanya Owens, but Alison Waters was pushed hard
by Madeline Perry, winning 13/11, 16/14, 7/11, 11/4, and Laura
Lengthorn-Massaro needed to keep her wits about her to see off
Aisling Blake 12/10, 11/6, 11/7...
England now face pool B runners-up France in the semis while
Ireland meet the Netherlands.
 "It's
good to get a few games in, although as this was probably my
last match here I wanted to win it on a good shot really [Tanya
put an easy shot into the tin on match ball].
"I'll play the PSL final then it's straight into hospital for an
operation on my hip. I've been playing on it for a while but
it's starting to affect me now, so this is a good time to get it
sorted out.
"They've identified a significant tear, but obviously until they
get in there I don't know just how long it will take to recover.
They're talking of starting to get on court in two months,
playing again in four, but we'll just have to see."
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Italians down the hosts
Sweden certainly had more support than Italy for their women's
pool C decider, but Italy had the cute mascot, and took the
victory 3/0.
It was looking comfortable for Italy when Chiara Ferrari led 2/0
and 10/4, but a tremendous fightback from Jenny Akervall saw the
Swede save eight match balls before pulling a game back.
That was the end of Swedish hopes though, as the Italians took
the next seven games, Manuela Manetta minus her usual bandana -
"I'm trying out a new look" - and Sonia Pasteris taking Italy
home with 3/0 wins.
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Wales join England in the semis
The women's matches ran over schedule, meaning that rather than
starting at the same time, Wales played their last match against
Spain, then had to wait for the England/Germany result.
Borja Golan predictably got the Spaniards off to a good start,
beating David Evans 3/0. Peter Creed, Alex Gough and Rob
Sutherland all won though, leaving Germany with an uphill task
to match the Welsh game tally.
Daryl Selby, Alister Walker and Nick Matthew duly won 3/0 to
ensure England topped the group, but Welsh nerves were jangling
when Jens Schoor stood at one-all with Adrian Grant.
Having pulled out of the Irish Open Grant is probably not fully
fit, and a retirement or a loss to Schoor would have taken the
Germans into the semis [with Germany and Wales each having one
win, one loss and a draw, second place is decided on countback].
Grant rallied to take the last two games comfortably though, and
Wales could look forward to a semi-final, probably against
France ... |
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Sweden leave it late
There was one place left in the men's 5/12 draws, and long after
all the other matches had finished, hosts Sweden were battling
it out with Italy to claim that prize.
With Sweden leading 2/0 the top strings took to the glass court
in front of a packed crowd and fought out what could be the
longest match of the tournament so far.
Christian Drakenberg was well used to the court, having played
on it the last two days, but for Italy's Jose Facchini it was a
new experience.
 To
be honest, I saw most of the first game, and you could tell then
that this was going to be a long one. A long time later I went
back to the glass court to see if the final match of the day -
the one after Drakenberg/Facchini - had finished, to see the
pair still going strong, now well into the decider.
There was nothing to separate them as they traded points, 7-all,
8-all, 9-all. The Italian got a warning for timewasting, the
Swede earned himself matchball, and had Facchini on a string in
the last rally. Jose dived, recovered, ran like a lunatic, dived
again but this time couldn't return the ball as the place
erupted.
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