Ursu and Kiriakova beat the hosts in Czechia but lost to the tournament winners

In their opening match in the second draw of the table tennis qualifying tournament for the Paris Olympic Games, Vladislav Ursu of Chisinau and Alexandra Kiriakova of Dubăsari beat the tournament hosts' pair convincingly, 4:2 (12:10, 8:11, 11:8, 6:11, 11:9, 11:5).

In the quarter-finals Vladislav and Alexandra met the Spanish duo of Álvaro Robles and María Xiao, sixth in the world mixed doubles ranking. The Moldovans looked very good, recovering after losing the first two sets and coming close to doing so again. With the Spaniards leading 3:2 in sets, the Moldovan pair led 10:8, but could not break the resistance of their decorated opponents. The final result was 2:4 (4:11, 7:11, 11:8, 12:10, 5:11, 11:13).

It should be noted that the Spanish pair went on to win this part of the draw, beating opponents from Romania in the final, having lost the final to South Korea on the tournament's opening day.

The secretary general of the Table Tennis Federation of Moldova, Elena Mocrousova, praised Vladislav and Alexandra's performance in Havířov:

“This is a young pair with a future. For our two it was a first Olympic cycle and they played well. Vladislav and Alexandra have it all ahead of them,” Elena Mocrousova said in an interview for SPORTS.md.

Source — MOLDOVA.sports.md