FIP World Cup Qualifiers Europe, Day 4. Netherlands, Poland and Belgium dream of a place in Doha. Four decisive matchups on Saturday

MADRID – All eight teams still in contention in Madrid will take to the court with the same objective: to secure one of the four places available (two in the men’s and two in the women’s competition) and qualify for the World Cup in Qatar, scheduled to take place from 2 to 7 November. With the first four days of the FIP World Cup Qualifiers Europe now completed, the final verdicts are set to be decided: the four decisive ties will be played on Saturday 26 September. In the women’s competition, the winners of Great Britain-Poland and Denmark-Germany will qualify for the World Cup. In the men’s competition, the winners of Netherlands-Belgium and Great Britain-Germany will secure their place at the most eagerly awaited team competition of the year.

 

WOMEN’S The first result on Day 4 was Poland’s convincing 3-0 victory over Romania. The wins secured by the Pacocha/Kiszczyńska, Nowakowska/Górczyńska and Piórkowska/Rosolska pairs proved decisive in securing their place in the next round. After finishing top of Group D in the group stage, Poland continue to show a high level of play. In the other women’s tie of the day, Denmark defeated Greece thanks to victories by Alipieva/Haxen and Wiese/Skov. The Danish players have won every match, in every tie, played so far in Madrid. In the decisive ties with two places at the Women’s World Cup at stake, Poland will face Great Britain, while Denmark will take on Germany. Great Britain and Germany have an advantage: they will enter these ties with a day of rest. The tournament regulations stipulated that the winners of Groups A and B, which included the main seeded teams, would receive a bye in the first round of the final stage.

 

MEN’S After a closely contested tie, Germany defeated Denmark 2-1. The German team, after losing the first match and winning the second, secured their place in the next round thanks to Böhnke/Merten’s victory over Svendsen/Jensen. On Day 4, Great Britain produced a strong performance, beating Ukraine 3-0 with the pairs Loughlan/Harris, Medina Murphy/Patacho and Jones/Salisbury. Great Britain have so far enjoyed a perfect campaign in the FIP World Cup Qualifiers Europe: they finished top of their group and have not conceded a single match in any of the ties played. In the other two ties of the day, the Netherlands defeated Poland (wins for Richters/Roper and Meijer/Nolten), while Belgium beat Bulgaria. These victories moved the two national teams closer to qualification. The decisive ties for a place at the World Cup are Germany-Great Britain and Belgium-Netherlands: the winners of these two ties will travel to Qatar.

 

DAY 5 SCHEDULE Four ties will be played on the final day of the FIP World Cup Qualifiers final stage. From 9am local time, Madrid will host the women’s ties Great Britain-Poland and Denmark-Germany. The two men’s ties concluding the day’s programme, Belgium-Netherlands and Germany-Great Britain, will begin no earlier than 12pm. The ties will be broadcast on the FIP YouTube channel.