Hursey among the surprise winners at the European Table Tennis Championships

The players tried to rise to their own groups to secure their place in the main draws of the singles.

Hursey, who had recently won two World Table Tennis youth events in good shape, shocked 35^th seed Maria Yovkova when the Bulgarian lost to 41st place finisher 11-3, 11-8, 11-6.

It was a bad day for the best player in the third group because after Hursey’s defeat, Yovkova lost to Prithika Pavade when the Frenchman won 11-5, 7-11, 11-9, 11-8.

Sabina Surjan Serbista, 38^th seed, suffered a surprise opening loss for the Austrian Lia Yuan because 80^th the seed reigned 7-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-5, although Surjan struck back in the next match and defeated Slovak Ema Labosova 11-5, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9.

The group’s nine best seed, Turkish Ozge Yilmaz was also upset in the hands of Polish player Katarzyna Wegrzyn 6-11, 11-3, 11-5, 11-7, before Yilmaz lost Hana Haripovic to Croatia 12-10, 11-3, 3-11 , 11-5.

The women’s group winners will be finalized tomorrow as the remaining matches are played in each group.

In the men’s doubles, one of the biggest disruptions of the day was caused by Viktor Viktor Jefimov from Ukraine, who won the Finnish Benedek Olah, world number 33, in five matches 11-6, 11-6, 6-11, 4-11, 11-9.

Jefimov followed his blow victory over Olah with a new victory against Israeli Yonatan Shusterman 11-9, 11-6, 11-9.

Meanwhile, Serbi Dimitrije Levajac defeated a player almost 300 places higher when world class 387 shocked 96^th seed England’s Lee Walker, winning five games 11-5, 11-9, 5-11, 7-11, 11-3.

Polish Samuel Kulcyzcki managed to beat the fourth group by winning Walker in four matches and Levajac in three matches.

The winners of the group on the men’s side ended today with all the matches played.

Jefimov, Joao Geraldo from Portugal, Lubomir Jancarik and Tomas Polansky from the Czech Republic, Kulcyzcki, Niagol Stoyanov, Mihai Bobocica and Marco Rech Daldosso from Italy, Truls Moregard from Sweden, Vladislav Ursu from Moldova, Lev Katsman and Vladimir Sidorenko from Russia, Yevhen Ecseki from Hungary, Robin Devos and Martin Allegro from Belgium, Hunor Szocs and Rares Sipos from Romania, Abdullah Yigenler from Turkey, Andreas Levenko from Austria, Alexandre Cassin from France, Alexander Khan from Belarus and Zsolt Peto from Serbia advanced to the top of the group.