London Met Tennis Team Success
3rd January 2009
London Metropolitan University’s tennis squad have won both the Women’s and the Men’s titles at the prestigious 2008 European Universities Tennis Championships in Dublin.
Their victories follow a successful 2007 tournament in Moscow where both teams achieved bronze medals. This meant that they entered this year’s competition as Number Five and Number Three seeds respectively.
The European Championships differ from the British games. Teams must play two singles matches over three sets and one doubles match if required. This meant that each player had to be at their peak physical fitness as they had to play up to two intensive matches a day over the five-day event.
In the Group Stages the women trounced the Polish team from Wrocslaw University 3-0 and then beat their Irish hosts, Dublin City University 2-0.
Proving that London Met is the premier sporting university in Britain when it comes to tennis, the London Met ladies then beat Loughborough 2-0 in the Quarter Finals. They then played a tough game against rivals the Moscow State University for Economics, Statistics and Information (MESI) winning 2-1. This match really was a testament to the women’s training and determination to succeed. The battle of wills in the final set of doubles was a close 14-12 to London Met.
The final against Munster University from Germany, finally saw the triumphant women’s team- Anna Koumantou, Annabel Bann, Maja Kambic and Marijana Cutuk- lift the title 2-1.
The men led their Group after wins against Sweden’s University of Stockholm, 2-1 and Germany’s Heidelburg University, 2-0. Again a London Met sporting team also triumphed against a team from Loughborough University winning 3-0.
The men’s success meant that the Quarter Final was an exclusively London Met affair as the 1sts team played the 2nds. The 1st team then went on to the Semi-Finals, winning against Stockholm University 2-0.
In the nail-biting Final London Met’s team, made up of Matjaz Jurman, Radoslaw Nijaki, Jakub Nijaki, Stefan Balog, Konstantinos Oliver Kalaitzis and Bastian Gruendler, won in a well-fought 2-0 win against MESI men’s squad.
Konstantinos Gogos, Coach and Manager of the Tennis teams said: ‘Every member of the team deserves credit for their professional attitudes. The tournament went very smoothly with everyone giving maximum effort on the day.’
‘The teams have been preparing for over three months for the tournament both mentally and physically. They were commended by all for their fighting spirit and their winning mentality. Their play improved throughout the tournament. My special thanks goes also to Marcos Adams, Fitness Trainer and Gasper Pavli, Women’s Assistant Coach for their hard work developing player’s fitness and stamina over the last three months.
The London Met squad has now gone to Loughborough University to take part in the UK University Individuals Championships where they hope to continue their winning streak.
The highlights of the European Championships will be shown on 29 December on Eurosport at 6.30pm.