Talk about heavy loss. Sweden’s ladies pushed Portugal and their two first names Jieni Shao, 54th in the world ranking, and Fu Yu, 27th, fully in the EC quarter-finals. But it wasn’t enough. Sweden’s optimistic team, with hopes of a European Championship medal after progressing in recent times, fell 1-3.
– We’ve had a good tournament, but it’s sour now, Linda Bergström exclaimed afterwards.
Both Linda and Stina Källberg had applauded Portugal’s first name before.
– In the individual EC in Warsaw last year, I beat Shao Jieni in the first round.
But 11–5 in the fifth and decisive for Stina then ended in 9–11 now since she equalized in the opening match to 2–2 after 13–11, 14–12.
Linda Bergström had to surrender to higher ranked Yu Fu after 9–11, 9–11, 7–11 before she faced Shao Jieni in what became the final match. 12–14, 10–12 in the final sets to 1–3 uncounted wasn’t so much fun as Linda led 9–5 in the third set and had 4–2, 6–4, 9–8, 10–9 in the fourth and final before Jieni made a small comeback.
– She is confident and has a serve that is stable, but of course it hurts not being able to finish in the right way, said Linda.
The women’s team has progressed
Stina, who never got to finish meeting Yu Fu, could only agree with the summation of this championship in front of an enthusiastic audience in Malmö’s fine Arena:
– The Swedish women’s national team has taken several steps forward in recent seasons.
And she couldn’t help but say:
– We have the future ahead of us against the many older opponents, absolutely. We were already there sniffing, said Stina.
After 0–2 against Shao Jiani, she played herself up and it was an uncertain fight until the end.
Sweden’s number three Filippa Bergand got further proof that she has progressed and took Sweden’s only victory when she got to 11–4, 7–11, 11–8, 11–7 against Matilde Pinto and arranged the reduction to 1–2 in the third match.
Filippa won three of his four matches in the EC, and that´strong.
EC, women’s quarter-finals
Portugal-Sweden 3–1
Jieni Shao-Stina Källberg 11–5, 11–7, 11–13, 12–14, 11–9
Fu Yu-Linda Bergström 11–9, 11–9, 11–7
Matilde Pinto-Filippa Bergand 4–11, 11–7, 8–11, 7–11
Jieni Shao-Bergström 7–11, 11–8, 14–12, 13–11
The Swedish women’s quotas in the team EC (10–6)
Linda Bergström 4–3 (14–12 in sets)
Filippa Bergand 3–1 (11–4 in sets)
Stina Källberg 3–2 (11–11 in the set)
Matilda Hanson
Alma Roöse
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