Austria, Romania win doubles at European Table Tennis
An Austrian men's doubles duo beat their Swedish rivals in a tense, seven-set final to win gold at the 2012 European Table Tennis Championships here on Saturday.
In a marathon encounter lasting 64 minutes Saturday, Austria's sixth seeds Robert Gardos and Daniel Habesohn beat fifth-seeded Swedes Kristian Karlsson and Mattias Karlsson 12-10, 11-9, 10-12, 11-13, 11-5, 13-15, 12-10, reports Xinhua.
The match went down to the wire as the Swedes levelled the scores 9-9 in the deciding seventh set, before the Austrians pulled ahead to wrap up the match.
Earlier Saturday, the women's doubles final saw top seeds Daniela Dodean and Elizabeta Samara of Romania take on the second-seeded pair Georgina Pota and Krisztina Toth of Hungary, with the Romanian duo winning in seven sets.
Dodean and Samara came from behind to upset the Hungarians, who had won the first three sets 11-7, 11-8, 11-9, to win the four final sets 11-7, 11-7, 21-19, 11-5, and the match, in a commanding display of skill and calm nerves.
Meanwhile, the men's singles second seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany saw the curtain fall on a disappointing tournament as he crashed out in the singles quarterfinal round, losing in seven sets to 26th seed Tan Ruiwu of Croatia.
Ovtcharov compounded his misery as he and his third seeded doubles partner Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus lost the men's doubles semi-finals in six sets to Austria's Gardos and Habesohn, the eventual title winners.
Samsonov, the singles third seed, earlier lost his quarterfinal match to Germany's Bastian Steger in four sets. That leaves tournament first seed Timo Boll of Germany the only player among the top seeds to progress to the men's singles semifinal round.
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