Romanian player Ovidiu Ionescu has won the silver medal in the men’s singles single European Table Tennis Championships in Alicante (Spain) on Sunday after being defeated in the final by the well-known German player Timo Boll 4- 1 (6-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5).
Ionescu, winning 4-1 in the semi-final against Swedish table tennis player Kristian Karlsson, started the match well and won quite clearly the first set, 11-6, and then led in the second set, but Boll came from behind and won 11-7. The German (37 years old), more experienced, succeeded in winning the following sets, winning his seventh European title in the singles event.
Boll’s record also includes a bronze medal at the World Championship in the singles event (eight in total) and three medals at the Olympic Games (all of them won with the team).
Ovidiu Ionescu has thus won the only medal of the Romanian delegation to the Europeans in Alicante, Spain.
Ionescu also won a bronze European medal, in the mixed doubles in 2016, in pair with Romanian table tennis player Bernadette Szocs. The last medal won by men tennis players for Romania at the European Championships was taken over Adrian Crisan, bronze in 2012, in Herning (Denmark).
photo: TVR HD capture