Ovidiu Ionescu, Bernadette Szocs win mixed doubles silver at European Table Tennis Championships

The Romanian pairing of Ovidiu Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs won the silver medals in the mixed doubles event of the European Table Tennis Championships in Munich on Monday evening, after losing to the French pairing Emmanuel Lebesson/Jianan Yuan 3-1 (8-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-9).

In the semifinal, Ionescu and Szocs defeated Robert Gardos/Sofia Polcanova of Austria 3-2 (5-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-6).

This is the fourth European medal won by the pairing Ionescu/Szocs in mixed doubles, after the two bronze medals secured at the European Championships in 2012 and 2016 and the silver one at the 2019 European Games in Minsk.

In the women's singles, Andreea Dragoman won the third preliminary group, after defeating Kornelija Riliskyte (Lithuania) 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-7), and Dragana Vignjevic (Serbia) 3-1 ( 11-8, 11-8, 6-11, 11-6).

In the 13th Group, Tania Plaian lost to Croatian Hana Arapovic, 2-3 (15-17, 11-7, 10-12, 11-9, 4-11), and is next to play on Tuesday against Konstantina Paridi of Greece.

In the 21st Group, Irina Ciobanu won the first two matches, 3-0 (11-4, 11-3, 11-1) against Amelia Uce (North Macedonia) and 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 12-10) against Bernadett Balint (Hungary); on Tuesday she will meet Baiba Bogdanova (Latvia).

In the men's singles, Rares Sipos won Group 8, after 3-2 (11-8, 11-7, 5-11, 8-11, 11-6) with Georgios Stamatouros (Greece) and 3-0 ( 11-5, 15-13, 12-10) with Adam Klajber (Slovakia).

In the 13th Group, Darius Movileanu defeated Michael Tauber (Israel) 3-2 (3-11, 5-11, 15-13, 12-10, 11-9), but lost to Denmark's Anders Lind 0-3 (2-11, 12-14, 5-11).

In the 22nd Group, Eduard Ionescu beat Mattias Mongiusti of San Marino 3-1 (11-6, 5-11, 11-2, 11-4), after which he lost to Greek Ioannis Sgouropoulos 1-3 (11-13, 11-8, 1-11, 7-11). He will play his last match on Tuesday, against Filip Mladenovski (North Macedonia).

In the 23rd Group, Iulian Chirita defeated Bosnian Edin Gutic 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-2), lost to Croatian Frana Kojic 2-3 (9-11, 8 -11, 11-8, 11-6, 7-11), and on Tuesday he will play Vladislav Ursu (Republic of Moldova).

Group winners qualify directly for the main draw, while the second-placed players in each group will have to go through one or two more preliminary rounds for the main draw.