King stars at European Championships

Table tennis talent Yolanda King played a leading role in helping her university, Nottingham, come fifth in the European Universities Championships in Geneva.
Yolanda King helped Nottingham University finish fifth in the European Universities ChampionshipsYolanda King helped Nottingham University finish fifth in the European Universities Championships
Yolanda King helped Nottingham University finish fifth in the European Universities Championships

Playing at number one, the 20-year-old from Hastings led Nottingham to an opening 3-2 victory over Kiel University, taking two singles, including the crucial decider in five close games over the German no.1.

Nottingham lost 3-1 to the strong Warsaw University side, but in her second singles King came back from 2-0 down before narrowly losing the deciding game to the Polish no.1.

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That was followed by a 3-1 success over the Turkish Dumlupinar University, King winning both her singles. Medal hopes were dashed, however, when Nottingham fell 3-0 to Russian State University for the Humanities, the eventual silver medallists, King losing her only singles.

Nottingham then beat Utrecht University 3-2, King winning her opening singles and then only just failing to beat the Dutch no.1 from a 2-0 lead, leaving it to her team-mate Tressa Armitage to secure the result.

In their final match against Munich University for places five and six, King took a star role in winning both her singles, though she risked losing the second before having a great finish. Armitage then won the last singles for a 3-2 victory and fifth place overall.

Playing with Armitage, King reached the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles, beating Polish pair Adrianna Szulc and Natalia Bak (Kozminski University) 3-0 in the previous round.

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They then had real chances against the powerful Anastasiia Golubeva and Olga Gordeeva (Russian State University for the Humanities), fighting back from 6-10 down in the fifth to 10-10 only to make two silly errors.

In the women’s singles, King had a good 3-1 first round win over the awkward Elise Paquereau (Poitiers University, France) before once again meeting the seeded Golubeva.

King, of the Cranbrook-based Weald TTC, was not outclassed by the defensive Russian and at one point was level at 1-1 in games. She did not play particularly well in this encounter, however, and went out 3-1.

Overall she was pleased with her performance. King said: “I played pretty well over the whole event.”

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