Manolina Constantinou/Mariota Angelopoulou scored two victories and Andri Iordanous/Thelma Christoforou conceded two defeats to send the Cyprus v. Romania clash to a deciding 15-point golden set. Eventually, Constantinou/Angelopoulou proved no match for Marina Cojocaru/Nicoleta Oprisan, sailing to a straightforward 15-11 that tipped the scales in favour of Cyprus. “We had to reach the golden set in order to pull together and take matters more seriously and minimise our errors,” admitted Angelopoulou after the match. “Eventually, though, we reached our goal of qualifying to the next phase and all’s well that ends well.” Meanwhile, in the men’s competition in Rhodes, Cyprus scored a major upset, when Jimmy Apostolou/Misha Kushnerev came back from 0-1 to defeat Greece’s No. 1 team of Manos Xenakis/Giorgos Kotsilianos 2-1 (08-21, 21-15, 15-08) and force a fourth match in the clash Greece v. Cyprus. It was Panayotis Mourtzios/Nikos Zoupanis eventually who scored the decisive victory over Andreas Zannis/Constantinos Hadjidamianou 2-0 (21-11, 21-14) and push Greece through to Saturday’s final. |
