LOS ALCÁZARES - The first display of power by Gwendal Maréchal, the main favorite for the title, closed the sessions of the group phase at the European championship under 25 on Saturday morning. The Frenchman, who had slipped up against Seymen Özbas, had yet to force his qualification against Dimitrios Seleventas and went full speed in that match. With a magnificent 30-9 in 10 (run 10), Maréchal not only recorded the best match in these preliminaries, but also the highest run. The first selection has been made: the field is reduced from 32 to 16 players, the knock-out phase can start. The only 19-year old Austrian Nikolaus Kogelbauer was the best on average of the players with the maximum 6 match points: 1,168. Maréchal, with four match points, finished the preliminaries with 1,500 on average.
Sixteen players continue, sixteen may go home. The most notable names eliminated include Turkish champion Dogukan Corbaci, three Spanish home favorites, Mario Mercader, Sergio Martinez and Daniel Peña and all three Dutch are out of the tournament.
The four French players, Gwendal Maréchal, Maxime Panaia, Nathan Duriez and Enzo Riquart all made it to the next stage. The Germans are also successful with Simon Blondeel, Tom Löwe and Marcel Back. The Turks are in the last sixteen with Seymen Özbas and Muhammed Kilic, the Belgians with Stef van Hees and Nick Rosier and the Italians with Alessio D'Agata and Emanuele Criscino. For Spain, with its four players in the tournament, only Ivan Mayor could qualify. This Spanish champion finished his last match in 12 innings, a fantastic match.
Alessio D'Agata and Seymen Özbas were the first two players to finish the preliminaries with the maximum 6 match points. They later were followed by Nikolaus Kogelbauer, Stef van Hees, Simon Blondeel and Muhammed Kilic to join them. Two group winners finished with four points: Maxime Panaia, Lukas Mortensen.
Lukas Mortensen ended in Group D with a magnificent victory over Tom Löwe (30-19 in 22 innings), making the Austrian and not the German group winner. Maxima Panaia could not remain unbeaten either. The young Frenchman was beaten in his last match by Daniel Peña (30-25 in 34). The Spaniard fought for his last chance, but was eliminated on average by German Marcel Back.
The first knockout already shows great posters:
14.30, 1/8th finals:
Van Hees-Rosier
Özbas-Peña
Kogelbauer-Riquart
Kilic-Duriez
Blondeel-Criscino
D'Agata-Löwe
Mortensen-Mayor
Maréchal-Panaia
Rankings after the group phase:
Group A:
1 Seymen Özbas (Turkey) 6-1,071-8
2 Gwendal Maréchal (France) 4-1,500-10
3 Dimitrios Seleventas (Greece) 2-0.913-6
4 Palluca Lenny (Luxembourg) 0-0.445-4
Group B:
1 Alessio D'Agata (Italy) 6-0.900-5
2 Nathan Duriez (France) 4-1.011-6
3 Dogukan Corbaci (Turkey) 2-0.742-5
4 Sebastian Heimrath (Austria) 0-0.459-4
Group C:
1 Maxime Panaia (France) 4-0.801-6
2 Marcel Back (Germany) 4-0.745-7
3 Daniel Peña (Spain) 4-0.704-3
4 Daniel Kristiansen (Denmark) 0-0.781-7
Group D:
1 Lukas Mortensen (Denmark) 4-1.205-7
2 Tom Löwe (Germany) 4-1.082-7
3 Mario Mercader (Spain) 4-0.909-6
4 Nick Dudink (Netherlands) 0-0.600-3
Group E:
1 Simon Blondeel (Germany) 6-0.947-6
2 Ivan Mayor (Spain) 4-1.173-10
3 Joris van 't Zelfden (Netherlands) 2-0.581-4
4 Björn Jensen (Denmark) 0-0.811-7
Group F:
1 Nikolaus Kogelbauer (Austria) 6-1.168-7
2 Nick Rosier 2-0.880-5
3 Ali Ibraimov (Germany) 2-0.784-6
4 Christos Falangas 2-0.717-5
Group G:
1 Stef van Hees (Belgium) 6-1.097-7
2 Enzo Riquart (France) 4-0.782-6
3 Tom Slikker (Netherlands) 2-0.728-4
4 Luis Pinto (Portugal 0-0.690-4
Group H:
1 Muhammed Mustafa Kilic (Turkey) 6-1,000-6
2 Emanuele Criscino (Italy) 4-0.914-4
3 Sergio Martinez (Spain) 2-0.923-4
4 Goncalo Santos (Portugal) 0-0.680-4
Gwendal Maréchal showed his very best in the last match for the group stage
Alessio D'Agata, maximum matchpoints, one of two Italians in the knock-outs
Nathan Duriez knocked out the Turkish champion and is among the four French players in the first knock-outs
Simon Blondeel, one of three Germans to move up