Bratislava, May 21, 2017: World title Brazil Bratislava, History made on the last day of the 2017 Para Table Tennis World Team Championships as the trio of Bruna ALEXANDRE, Danielle RAUEN and Jennfyer MARQUES won the Class 9-10 Women’s Title.
The Brazilians overcame a highly-spirited Turkish team (Neslihan KANAS, Merve DEMIS and Hilal TURKKAN) 2-0 in the finals. The doubles match went in favour of the Brazilians, after a thrilling 5 games encounter before Bruna ALEXANDRE beat Merve DEMIR in a comfortable straight games victory (11-8, 11-2, 11-6). The other two semifinalists were Croatia and Germany.
“We came to Bratislava with the aim of being World Champions. I am pleased that we were able to achieve this dream. In the final, the doubles was very tough, as the Turkish players changed their strategies throughout the game. We had to keep finding ways to solve problems during the match; what stood out was our team spirit, we practise together regularly in Brazil.” Bruna ALEXANDRE
Host country Slovakia did not disappoint the local crowd as the team of Jan RIAPOS, Martin LUDROVSKY and Lukas KLIZAN beat Rio Paralympic Gold Medalist Fabien LAMIRAULT and Stephane MOLLIENS (FRA) 2-0 to win the Men’s Class 2 event.
“Prior to the tournament, I had one dream which was to organize the tournament and to sing the national anthem. I am very happy that I’m able to fulfil this dream now. Two months ago, I beat Fabien at the Hungarian Open. Today we had home ground advantage and most importantly we won the doubles match; that relieved the stress on us.” Jan RIAPOS
Gold medal in the pocket for Slovakia, as they finish their campaign at the Para Table Tennis World Team Championships with 1 Gold and 1 Silver.
The 2018 edition of the Para Table Tennis World Championships will feature individual events. —- ITTF
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