Ni Xia Lian, Sarah De Nutte Win Bronze at European Table Tennis Championship

On Thursday 18 August 2022, Luxembourg's Table Tennis players Ni Xia Lian and Sarah De Nutte missed out on the finals, losing 1-3 to the strong and experienced Romanians Elizabeta Samara and Andreea Dragoman, but won broze medal at this European Individual Championships in Munich.

The Luxembourgers got off to a perfect start. They controlled the first set from the start and finished 11-6. Samara and Dragoman also took an early lead in the second set and pulled away across the scores 7-3 and 10-6 to convert their first set point to 11-6.

In the third set everything looked like a clear set win for Ni and De Nutte, who started aggressively and flawlessly from the first point, quickly leading 4-0 and pulling away to 8-2. With their backs against the wall, Samara and Dragoman risked everything, caught up point by point, equalised at 9-9 and won the third set by 11-9.

Hope grew in the Luxembourg camp again at the beginning of the fourth set with 2-0 for Ni and De Nutte. With a 6-0, the Romanians pulled away to 6-2, Ni and De Nutte closed the gap again to 6-7. It was no longer enough to equalise. With a series of 4 own points, Samara and Dragoman finished 11-6 and the Romanians had 3-1 overall victory.