In the boys’ event, Romania, France, the Czech Republic and Poland all advanced, as in the girls’ competition did Germany and Belarus. However, for Russia and Slovakia it was the end of the road.

Russia (Anastasiia Ivanova, Zlata Terekhova) no.3 seeds experienced a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Portugal (Julia Leal, Matilde Pinto, Mariana Santa Comba).

Similarly, it was a reverse by the same margin for Slovakia (Dominika Wiltschkova, Michaela Bitoova, Nina Darocova), the no.4 seeds when facing Belarus (Ulyana Miashchanskaya, Veronika Varabyova).

The previous day Russia had finished in second place behind Poland; Slovakia in third spot in a group topped by France. Notably, both Poland and France maintained their form in the opening round, as did Ukraine who had secured first place in their initial phase group ahead of Belarus, the no.2 seeds.

Poland (Natalia Bogdanowicz, Wiktoria Wrobel) claimed a 3-0 success in opposition to Spain (Silvia Coll, Maria Berzosa); France (Gaetane Bled, Clea de la Stoppeleire, Agathe Anne Avezou) recorded a 3-1 win against Slovenia (Sara Tokic, Enja Moltara).

In a similar vein, a 3-1 margin of victory was the score-line for Ukraine (Veronika Matiunina, Sofia Sheredeha, Adela Sazimova) when facing the Czech Republic (Vendula Sichanova, Adela Sazimova).

Meanwhile for Germany, the top seeds (Annett Kaufmann, Mia Griesel), it was a 3-1 opening round success against Turkey (Nihat Nebhan, Busra Demir, Abüke Banu Simsek).

Problems for leading outfits in the opening round of the girls’ team competition, for the boys, it was very different.

Romania (Dragos Alexandru Bujor, Iulian Chirita), the top seeds, secured a 3-0 win against Spain (Daniel Berzosa, Pablo Bobo, Hugo Urquizar); by the same margin, France (Flavien Coton, Felix Lebrun), the no.2 seeds, ousted Israel (Uri, Almor, Eitay Shushan, Itay Avivi).

Comfortable margins of victory; it was reasonably similar for the Czech Republic (Martin Sip, Stepan Brhel). They recorded a 3-1 success in opposition to Bulgaria (Yoan Velichkov, Georgi Stoyanov, Stefan Dimitrov); the same margin of victory as recorded by Poland (Alan Kulczycki, Michal Wandachowicz) when facing Turkey (Yigit Furkhan Simsek, Ugurcan Dursan).

The quarter and semi-finals of both the boys’ team and girls’ team events will be played on Thursday 29th July.

Gazprom 2021 European Youth Championships results