Erasmus University Rotterdam, the University of St. Gallen and the University of Mainz completed the quarter-final line-up in the men’s tennis tournament held at Mladost Sports Park in Zagreb. In the women’s tournament, among the teams that qualified to the next phase of the competition is one team from Croatia – the University of Split. The girls from Split thus joined their colleagues from Zagreb in the quarterfinals.
In Group A of the men’s tournament, two matches decided the final outcome. The team from Rotterdam won 2-0 against the British University of Stirling, and the tennis players of the University of Zagreb missed their chance for the quarterfinals, losing to the University School of Physical Education from Wroclaw. The Polish aces celebrated with 2-1.
The Joseph Fourier University won the first place in Group B. it wasn’t easy for the French athletes to step out on the field due to the events in Nice, but the Fourier team won 3-0 against the University of Innsbruck, which was thus left at the second position in the group.
Kozminski University gained a third a convincing win in Group C. The team from Warsaw won 3-0 against Zagreb’s VERN, and thanks to Kozminski, the players of the University of St. Gallen also qualified for the quarterfinals as well. The Swiss representatives celebrated with 2-0 against the Portuguese University of Coimbra.
Alongside with Istanbul Aydin University, which solved most of their concerns with the victories in the first two rounds, the German Mainz from Group D also qualified for the quarterfinals. Their representatives have qualified for the further stages of the competition with 2-1, in a match with the team from Istanbul, while the team of Camilo José Cela University from Madrid was left emptyhanded, and their 2-1 win in the third round against the Norwegian University of Science and Technology didn’t mean too much to them.
The Spanish team did not qualify, but they at least had a good time in the early stages of the match with the Norwegian rivals, accompanied by their football colleagues who came to watch the match.
‘We are always together, each team from our University socializes with each other and cheers for each other,’ said Emilio Cid Juarez, adding that he, in addition to the atmosphere of the Games, liked the weather in Zagreb, which was a lot fresher than in Spain those days.
In the women’s tournament, in the third round of Group E, a match determining who would qualify to the quarterfinals from the first place in the group was played, and the University of New Lisbon won. The Portuguese players won 3-0 against their rivals from the University of Zagreb, who also qualified for the further stages of the competition from the second place in the group.
Group F was marked Coimbra University’s dominance, while the University of Mainz won the second place. The German representatives made an important step the day before, when they were better than the University of Innsbruck, while in the third round they secured the knock-out stage with a 3-0 over the University of Ljubljana.
In Group G, the University of Split qualified to the quarterfinals, the same as the University of Stirling in Group H. The Croatian representatives were better than the Hungarian University of Physical Education in the finals of the first round of the group stage, with a score of 2-1. The British girls came second in Group H with a 3-0 against the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
The Croatian representatives have done a great job with qualifying to the next phase, but they want more. ‘We have some difficult matches behind us and we are also quite tired. We will try to be better prepared for the quarterfinals to win it,’ said Antonela Šušak, an important player of the Split’s team.
The girls from Split will play the University of Bordeaux in the quarterfinals, and the remaining quarter-final pairs are the Erasmus University in Rotterdam – the University of Stirling, the New University of Lisbon – the University of Mainz and the University of Coimbra – the University of Zagreb.
Results
