(By Steve Hopkins)
The European Games Singles Champions were crowned on Tuesday at the European Games in Krakow, Poland. Bernadette Szocs emerged as champion in Women’s Singles. She defeated Poland’s Natalia Bajor in the Semifinals and then topped Xioxin Yang of Monoco 4-3 to claim the title. Szocs fell behind early, losing the first two games at 11-4 and 11-7. After trading the next two games, her deficit was the same (down 1-3). But Szocs ran off three straight wins for the comeback win.
Marcos Freitas had an amazing run to the Final, and 16 year old French penholder Felix Lebrun surprised the field to reach the Final as well. The momentum of the match changed several times with Freitas winning the first game (1-0), then Felix winning the next two (1-2), and then Freitas winning the next two for yet another lead (3-2). But the last momentum swing went to Felix Lebrun who won Game 6 11-2 and then closed out the epic final game 13-11 for the title.
There is some real intrigue this year with the Men’s Team event that will start tomorrow. Germany should have the advantage in depth, and Sweden has a number of strong players – but in singles, France just finished with players in the No. 2 and No. 3 positions. Action in the team event begins tomorrow and the Finals are scheduled for Saturday.
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