European Team Championship: 2014

Team European Championship: A Decent Start

It's not a shame to lose to the favorite of the championship. Especially when you consider that the championship itself takes place on the courts of the opponent, who are always ready to support their native stands. Losing to one of the best teams in Europe is normal. The only question is how to do it. Our national team literally blew up all the speculations of the bookmakers. The confrontation between Italy and Ukraine turned into something really grandiose, once again forcing European experts to remember that there is such a competitive team on the world squash map.

It all started with the fact that in the match of the third rackets, the captain of our national team, Konstantin Rybalchenko, staged a real game terror for Andrea Torricini. During the match, the Italian “burned” with a score of 1: 2 and only then was able to somehow improve his game, having managed with incredible efforts to pull out the meeting in the fifth game. After the meeting of the first rackets (with all due respect to the champion of Ukraine Denis Podvorny, Marcus Berrett will still have more skill and experience of playing at the international level), the fourth numbers of their teams entered the battle. And here Valery Fedoruk simply flashed. Having won the first game in a tie-break, the Ukrainian exhausted his opponent in the second. When it was necessary, he threw himself on the floor in an attempt to get the ball, otherwise he did not leave the opponent a centimeter of freedom. Michelangelo Bertocci would be happy to do something, only he could only watch everything that happened, being in the center of the court. Only towards the end of the game Valery began to get tired, which resulted in the fact that his opponent finally felt some freedom and with a few blows was able to turn the tide of the fight, leveling the score - 1: 1.

“I believe that we have succeeded in this confrontation,” the captain of the Ukrainian national team Konstantin Rybalchenko commented on this meeting. - We had every chance to cope with the owners. Yes, we came across very strong rivals - Fakchini literally drove Sorochinsky around the court before Ruslan even had time to mentally enter the game. Moreover, he had a great responsibility - Sorochinsky went to court, realizing that if he won, we would end this confrontation with a positive draw for the national team. But pay attention to how the rest of the meetings went - we started with the fact that I lost only in the fifth game, and after a while Fedoruk literally blew everyone up, having dealt with Bertocci. In general, our start turned out to be really enchanting, despite the total final score. Special thanks to the fans. We have formed just crazy support. In addition to the Ukrainians, in Riccione, in order to support our team, squash lovers from other countries pulled themselves up - it turned out to be such an international group. Already today we were supported by Tatyana Madudina from Belarus, the Kutkovskys came from Greece, and tomorrow Igor Dinga from Moldova promised to come. But for some reason, the Italians themselves have a very tight relationship with the fans - practically no one supported them in the confrontation with our team. Maybe they are planning to go to the Italy-Czech Republic matches? However, their absence was right for us ”.

I would like to note that our team still needs to play against the Czech national team. Games with this opponent are scheduled for May 1 and will be held on indoor courts, which are more familiar to our players. And we can say with confidence that the Czechs, led by one of the best players in Europe, Jan Koukal, will indeed have a very difficult time. And with the attitude that the Ukrainian national team possesses today, no matter how the Slavic brothers have to stay on the last line of group B.

European Team Championship Division II (Riccione, Italy)

Group stage

Group B

Italy - Ukraine - 3: 1 (11: 5)

Andrea Torricini - Konstantin Rybalchenko - 3: 2 (11: 8, 3:11, 9:11, 11: 6, 11: 3) Markus Berrett - Denis Podvorny - 3: 0 (11: 5, 11: 4, 11: 2)

Michelangelo Bertocci - Valery Fedoruk - 2: 3 (10:12, 12:10, 8:11, 11: 3, 3:11) Jose Fakchini - Ruslan Sorochinsky - 3: 0 (11: 2, 11: 3, 11: 3)

Team European Championship: Fight for ninth place

Although the national team of Ukraine showed a very strong game, it still lost the second meeting of the group stage of the European Team Championship. After a worthy defeat on the first day of the tournament, when the Ukrainian squash players managed to take one game out of four from the owners of the courts, it was expected that the meeting against the Czech national team could be quite victorious for us. Taking into account the fact that the Czechs just coped with the Italians on Wednesday, having managed to win two out of three five-game fights, it turned out to be a rather interesting twist. With the maximum achieved result in a face-to-face fight, Ukraine would have been guaranteed to get into the playoffs of the tournament ... Unfortunately, it didn't work out.

The match schedule was such that everything was decided already in the first two meetings, where the first and second rackets met with each other. Therefore, the intrigue died before more or less equal in strength rivals entered the courts. On the other hand, it is worth praising the leaders of our national team - Denis Podvorny most of the meeting adequately opposed Jan Koukal, who is one of the hundred leaders of the PSA world rating, and Ruslan Sorochinsky stood against Peter Martin to the last. As you know, Ruslan's playing style is like a "train" that takes a long time to accelerate, but then is practically unstoppable - in the third game the Czech had to make incredible efforts to pull out a tie-break, and with it, such a difficult victory for himself. After it became clear that the Ukrainian national team was already on the last line in its group B, the reserve player of our team Dmitry Pogrebnyak received his playing practice at a high international level.

In the match against Ondřej Ertl, he showed himself very well, considering that Ertl has been performing at this level for a long time, and for a young Ukrainian, similar performances are still debut. Pogrebnyak created a lot of problems for his opponent, so the victory of the Czech squash player did not get a little blood. Well, and another applause to Valery Fedoruk. On Wednesday he brought our team the first and so far the only victory at the 2014 European Championship, on Thursday he made Ondřej Ugerka nervous as much as possible. It is symbolic that Valery's rival defended the colors of Petroholding Squash Club at the European Club Championship two years ago, and since then has only been progressing in his skill. However, every game against Fedoruk was given to him with great difficulty. Uherka took two of the three games with a minimal advantage, fully experiencing the power of the Ukrainian squash school.

Now our team will fight for 9-12 places. Already tonight we have a match against the Israeli national team, which lost all the matches in its group C without any options. Then there will be meetings with the Norwegians and Slovaks. With the way the Ukrainian players fought against the favorites of the second division, one can be sure that the future rivals of our national team will have a very difficult time...

European Team Championship

Division II (Riccione, Italy)

Matches for 9-12 places

Ukraine - Israel - 3: 1 (10: 6)

Ruslan Sorochinsky - Ron Levy - 3: 2 (12:10, 9:11, 11: 5, 3:11, 11: 6)

Denis Podvorny - Ido Avron - 1: 3 (4:11, 6:11, 11: 8, 10:12)

Valery Fedoruk - Nadav Tannen - 3: 1 (13:11, 9:11, 11: 8, 11: 6)

Konstantin Rybalchenko - Dovi Haruzi - 3: 0 (11: 9, 11: 9, 11: 2)

Team European Championship: First team victory

The Ukrainian national team celebrated the first full-fledged team victory in the continental championship in Riccione - rivals from Israel were defeated. The evening part of the second day of the European Team Championship was triumphant for the Ukrainian squash. Our men's national team started the fight in the group for 9-12 places with a victory, having managed to defeat the Israeli team with a total score of 3: 1.

Now, in order to guarantee our presence in the second division of the Euroforum next year, it is enough for us to win a victory over either the Norwegians or the Slovaks in the next two days. And in case of a double triumph, our guys will set a record for the performance of the Ukrainian team at the European Championships - after all, the 18th overall place was previously the highest achievement (if, taking into account the teams from the first division). Our five will manage to overcome their rivals in the next two days - we will win our group, and at the same time become ninth in our division (or 17th in the overall standings of the European Team Championship).

Ruslan Sorochinsky was the first to enter the battle - a huge psychological burden fell on him, since the mood of the whole team in the confrontation with the Israelis depended on the result of his meeting with Ron Levy. Ruslan felt it, having managed to dial his usual move in the very first games. He took the first game in a tie-break, lost the second with a minimal lag, and then went to crush the opponent. The loss in the fourth game was nothing more than a respite before skating on Levi in the final game. Total - 3: 2 and the first victory for the Ukrainian team.

Further, the players who are the first rackets of their national teams began to find out their relationship. The potential of Ido Avron was known even before the start of the meeting, so Denis Podvorny in this match was initially not easy. Nevertheless, the leader of the Ukrainian national team was able to show himself worthily, even losing during the meeting with a score of 0: 2. He took one of the games, in the next he brought the matter to a tie-break. And it was not his fault that as a result the opponent took this victory.

And then came the turn of games of the third and fourth numbers. It was their play that became defining. Valeriy Fedoruk, having started the meeting against Nadav Tannen rather hard, managed to play out and managed to crush the opponent in the other two games.

And then it was the turn of Konstantin Rybalchenko. The captain of our team managed to defeat Dovi Haruzi in three games, bringing the score of the Ukraine-Israel confrontation to a devastating one. On Friday, we are to play against the Norwegian national team, which has already managed to lose to the Slovaks in this group - as it turned out, apart from the familiar Kim Are Killingberg, the national team of this country has no particularly strong players. However, this is not a reason to relax ahead of time. After all, the victory over the Norwegians will immediately restrict us from relegation to the third division and will give us good chances to set a new record for the performances of the Ukrainian national team at the team championship of Ukraine by the results of this championship.

The matches between Ukraine and Norway will start at 18:00 Kyiv time and will again be held on the fourth and fifth indoor courts.

European Team Championship

Division II (Riccione, Italy)

Matches for 9-12 places

Ukraine - Norway - 3: 1 (9: 5)

Valeriy Fedoruk - Sindroy Roaldsoy - 3: 0 (11: 5, 11: 7, 11: 7)

Denis Podvorny - Kim Are Killingberg - 0: 3 (2:11, 4:11, 4:11)

Ruslan Sorochinsky - Christian Solhaug - 3: 1 (10:12, 11: 9, 11: 4, 11: 4)

Konstantin Rybalchenko - Ronnie Aasbo - 3: 1 (11: 8, 10:12, 11: 5, 11: nine)

Another match

Slovakia - Israel - 2: 2 (10:10, on points 170: 166)

David Kubitschek - Nadav Tannen - 2: 3 (8:11, 11: 4, 12:10, 3:11, 8:11)

Miroslav Zeller - Ido Avron - 3: 2 (6:11, 4:11, 13:11, 11: 2, 11: 7)

Peter Kwiecinski - Ron Levy - 2: 3 (7:11, 11: 8, 7:11, 11: 5, 3:11)

Marek Manik - Dovi Haruzi - 3: 2 (3:11, 11: 4, 11: 3, 7:11, 11: 2)

Team European Championship: Breaking the record

The men's national team of Ukraine achieved a historic achievement, for the first time in history taking the total 17th place at the European Team Championship. Ukrainian squash players met all the expectations of their fans, keeping their promise to make the current performance at the continental championship historic.

Denis Podvorny, Ruslan Sorochinsky, Konstantin Rybalchenko, Valery Fedoruk and Dmitry Pogrebnyak not only stayed in the second division of the Euro Forum, but also managed to take the final ninth place. And if we count in total with the teams of the first division, then it became the seventeenth. Thus, our quintet overcame its previous achievement - previously we managed to finish in 18th position in the overall standings twice (in 2010 and 2013). Having managed, after the victory over the Norwegian team, to guarantee the right to play in the second division next year, our squash players immediately set their sights on fulfilling their maximum task. The solution to this question did not look the easiest thing. Indeed, the day before, during a meeting with Kim Are Killingberg, the leader of our national team, Denis Podvorny, was out of action due to a stretching of the groin muscle.

Of course, additional game practice for Dmitry Pogrebnyak would look quite useful. But, on the other hand, each of our athletes had to play against stronger opponents. Moreover, the Slovaks were considered the most powerful and even team among other teams in the group for 9-12 places in the second division. Before that, they easily coped with the same Norwegians, on Friday they drew with the Israelis.

In general, the task was not easy. But our guys coped with it! Supported by a large delegation of Ukrainian fans (among whom squash fans from neighboring Belarus and Moldova came to cheer for the Ukrainian national team), they experienced an extraordinary rise in strength and started right off the bat.

The first to shoot was the captain of the national team Konstantin Rybalchenko, who left out of work the second racket of the Slovak national team Peter Kvecinski - in none of the three games played the opponent had a single chance against the player of the Petroholding Squash Club.

Then came the turn of the leaders of the national teams. Ruslan Sorochinsky, who replaced the injured Podvorny for a while, had to confront the experienced Miroslav Zeller. And the two-time champion of Ukraine did everything possible to make life difficult for his opponent. And even if Zeller took the game in the end, the two games won by Ruslan and the maximum number of points scored in the remaining games helped our team a lot in the future in the final calculation.

Young Dmitry Pogrebnyak resisted quite well in the match against David Kubitschek. Each of the won games was given to the Slovakian with great difficulty, and in the starting game it even came to a tie-break. Well, the main burden again fell on the "magic wand" of our team of 2014 - Valery Fedoruk. It was he who had to defeat Marek Manik in order to bring the final score of the confrontation to a draw, which would automatically mean the victory of the Ukrainian national team in the group for 9-12 places. And Fedoruk did not disappoint! Manik also understood the full degree of responsibility for the result, but all that he managed to do was to start well at the very beginning of the game. After that, the Ukrainian turned the tide of the game, leveled the score and began to crush the opponent in every rally. Yes, the Slovak managed to climb still, even to win another game in a tie-break. However, in the last two games Fedoruk clearly controlled the course of the meeting and no longer gave his opponent the opportunity to do something for his victory. Thanks to this triumph, in the final determination of the winner of the confrontation, we even had to resort to counting goals scored and conceded - that's when the points gained even in lost games by our players came to the fore.

The national team of Ukraine celebrated the victory with an indicator of +14. But, however, it was only about who won in one separate confrontation. This fact did not play a role in the tournament meaning - the overall draw already allowed us to call our team the best team in the group for 9-12 places. As for the losers of this tournament, Israel and Norway leave the second division, which will be replaced next year by the winners of the competitions in Zagreb, Hungary and Poland.

So, this year has turned out to be triumphant. The women's team, in its debut performance at the European Team Championship, took the bronze medals of the third division, while the men's team overcame the achievements of previous years. Now we are waiting for the same strong results from the junior U-15 team, which will begin their struggle at the continental championship on May 8 in Prague.

European Team Championship

Division II (Riccione, Italy)

Matches for 9-12 places

Slovakia - Ukraine - 2: 2 (8: 8, on points - 140: 154)

Peter Kvechinski - Konstantin Rybalchenko - 0: 3 (4:11, 5:11, 7:11)

Miroslav Zeller - Ruslan Sorochinsky - 3: 2 (5:11, 11: 8, 9:11, 12:10, 11: 4)

Marek Manik - Valery Fedoruk - 2: 3 (11: 8, 4:11, 12: 10, 7:11, 7:11)

David Kubichek - Dmitry Pogrebnyak - 3: 0 (13:11, 11: 9, 11: 6)

Israel - Norway - 2: 2 (6: 7)

Ron Levy - Christian Solhaug - 3: 0 (11: 6, 11: 4, 11: 5)

Ido Avron - Kim Are Killingberg - 0: 3 (9:11, 9:11, 7:11)

Dovi Haruzi - Ronnie Aasbo - 0: 3 (2:11, 5:11, 10:12)