Croatia In EC Table Tennis Finals

Croatian men`s table tennis team placed itself into the European championship finals in Belgrade.

In an uncertain encounter, Croatian table tennis players were better than Romania 3-2. They started excellently. Zoran Primorac convincingly overpowered second Romanian player Andrei Filimon 3-0 (11-8,11-6,11-9) in the first encounter. This was a great performance by Croatia`s best table tennis player, showing that he is like wine, better with age.

In the second encounter, Tan Ruiwa won against Adrian Crisan 3-1 ( 11-4,11-6,8-11,11-7), taking Croatia a step to the finals. Roko Tosic missed the first match break from Constantine Cioti in five difficult sets (12-14,11-7,11-9,5-11,16-14).

Zoki Primorac missed a chance to ensure a finals with an encounter between first racquets, who fell without a fired shot in a match with Crisan 11-2,11-4,12-10). All boiled down to the fifth decisive set between Ruiwa and Flimon. This was a struggle for every point, here nerves played an important role. In the end, the naturalised Chinaman was tougher in the fifth set (11-4,13-15,11-6,9-11,11-8), taking Croatia to their first finals.

On Tuesday at 17 hours, Croatia will be playing against Germany in the finals, which was better than Poland 3-0. German team`s line-up for this championship includes Timo Boll, Dmitrij Ovtcharov, Jorg Rosskopff, Steger Bastina and Christian Suss.