European Individual: 2010
EC: Irresistible "Goldfish", 2010
At the end of May in Saarbrücken, Germany, the European Individual Championship was held, in which the players of the Petroholding Squash Club also took part. Despite the seemingly not very successful performance of our guys, this tournament should still be included in their assets. The main thing is that Ukrainians have gained the necessary experience. And in the new PSA ranking, published after the team and individual continental championships, climbed a couple of dozen steps up.
The greatest progress fell to Ruslan Sorochinsky - his growth amounted to 40 positions. Due to the high preliminary rating, the captain of our club Konstantin Rybalchenko started immediately in the main grid of the tournament. However, the rating of the Ukrainian was not enough for a more successful sowing - in the first round he was on the 33rd racket of the world by German Simon Rosner. No matter how hard our player tried, he did not manage to win a more skillful opponent of any game.
"Rosner is a very experienced and strong player," Rybalchenko said after the match. - If he was not in shape, I could still have a chance against him. But he approached the European Championship with full responsibility. I'm happy at least because I was able to win him 12 points in this game."
By the way, the Ukrainian's opponent lost only one match at the championship - in the quarterfinals to the future European champion Thierry Lynch - and eventually won the fifth final place. Failure in the fifth game cost Rybalchenko's victory in the second meeting with the Slovak Toth.
In a series of matches for 25-32 places, he had a chance to make amends for the relegation of his partner Denis Dvorni, but the German Roermuller after losing in the 1/16 finals decided not to fight anymore and withdrew from the tournament. Rybalchenko lost the next matches, however, at that stage of the championship the final place was not of special importance.
The first racket of Ukraine Ruslan Sorochinsky, as well as Denis Podvorny, could not pass qualification. Ruslan's path was taken by the Belgian Burke, who eventually took 23rd place. "Of course, I'm upset," Ruslan later admitted. - But there is no reason to be surprised here. Usually, the European Individual Championship is not considered as prestigious a competition as, say, a team championship or representative tournaments - because of the small number of points in the ranking of players. This year the composition of the participants was very strong. What is worth only the presence of future finalists of the tournament Lynch and Goltier from the Top 10 world rankings!
"There is no variety of" Goldfish "courts in Ukraine - with transparent walls and a ceiling created for the convenience of spectators," Rybalchenko summed up. - For this reason, it is difficult for us to get used to playing on such courts on the fly. Glass walls create a feeling of more space on the court, which makes it harder for us to navigate. However, I am sure that with each such tournament we will feel more confident on such courts, which will definitely result in an improvement in our results."
In the end, we note that another representative of the Ukrainian squash Valery Fedoruk performed at the individual championship, who also stopped a step away from the main grid of the tournament, losing to the German Carsten Shore with a score of 1: 3.
EuropeanIndividualChampionships-2010
Saarbrücken, Germany
1st place - Thierry Lynchou (France)
2nd place - Gregory Goltier (France)
3rd place - Olli Tuominen (Finland)
…. 28th place - Konstantin Rybalchenko (Ukraine)
Qualification
Rudi Rormuller (Germany) - Denis Podvorny (Ukraine) - 3: 0 (11: 1, 11: 2, 11: 3)
Mark Burke (Belgium) - Ruslan Sorochinsky (Ukraine) - 3: 0 (11: 8, 11: 8, 11: 6)
1/16 finals
Simon Rosner (Germany) - Konstantin Rybalchenko (Ukraine) - 3: 0 (11: 6, 11: 2, 11: 4)
Matches for 17-32 places
Tomas Toth (Slovakia) - Konstantin Rybalchenko (Ukraine) - 3: 2 (11: 8, 1:11, 11: 5, 12:14, 11: 8)
Matches for 25-32 places
Konstantin Rybalchenko (Ukraine) - Rudy Rormuller (Germany) - refusal
Matches for 25-28 places
Andre Hashker (Germany) - Konstantin Rybalchenko (Ukraine) - 3: 1 (7:11, 11: 0, 11: 7, 11: 7)
Match for 27th place
Pavel Sladechek (Czech Republic) - Konstantin Rybalchenko (Ukraine) - 3: 0 (11: 8, 11: 5, 11: 7).