European Table Tennis Championships

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Sofia Polcanova can't stop celebrating.

(Bild: ÖTTV)

Defending champion Sofia Polcanova is also in the singles final at the European Table Tennis Championships in Linz, her third appearance in the final at these championships. She won mixed silver with compatriot Robert Gardos on Friday. 

Today, at 3.30 p.m., she will also be defending her title in the doubles with Romanian Bernadette Szöcs. The singles final is scheduled for 4.50 p.m., after a 4:1 (10,7,-10,4,6) win over the German Nina Mittelham against Szöcs.

Speechless
"I don't know what to say now," said Polcanova in the ORF interview about her success. "No matter what happens today, I'm very grateful for this tournament. If I had thought something like this on Wednesday, I wouldn't have believed it myself." The tension was very high and she hadn't slept much the night before. You have to build up the tension, but you can't be too tense. But she believed in herself. "I have a good record against Nina, maybe that had a positive effect on the match."

(Bild: APA/EVA MANHART)

The final will be a duel for gold between the top-seeded world number 13 Szöcs and the second-ranked local heroine, the world number 14. Polcanova is clearly ahead in the head-to-head, and she has never lost to her good friend Szöcs. Both have been in extremely strong form over the course of the week, with Szöcs beating Spain's Maria Xiao 4:1 in her semi-final. "My goal was my first European Championship semi-final, my first individual medal. Now I also want gold," explained the 29-year-old from Eastern Europe.

Revenge prevented
As in the quarter-finals on Saturday against her compatriot Sabine Winter, Polcanova was able to prevent Mittelham from taking revenge for the 2022 European Championships in Munich, where she had beaten Winter 4-3 in the semi-finals. In the final, Mittelham was 2-0 down and had to retire due to a shoulder injury. Before Polcanova now goes for the golden final in the TipsArena, she could win the doubles title again against Czech Hana Matelova and Slovak Barbora Balazova.

Polcanova went into the match against Mittelham with a 5:1 head-to-head lead, but had to fend off two set points - especially with her dangerous backhand. After trailing 6:7, she did not concede another point in the second set. This was followed by Polcanova's only second set loss in the singles tournament, to which she responded with a commanding win in the fourth round. With this advantage behind her, Polcanova pulled off her mission. Polcanova: "The first set was very important. In the second, I thought I had to play even more aggressively."