Table Tennis - APOLÓNIA Tiago vs JORGIC Darko - Men's Singles Quarterfinal Results

Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle Table 1 - 20 Aug - 13:15

Men's Singles Quarterfinal - Match 181

APOLÓNIA Tiago APOLÓNIA T

JORGIC Darko JORGIC D

Referees/Judges
Function	Name
Umpire	GER DUCHATZ KDUCHATZ Kerstin
Umpire	GER GEIGER CGEIGER Christoph

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POR

APOLÓNIA TAPOLÓNIA Tiago

On losing 4-3 and 12-10 in the deciding set:

"It’s a very, very close game. In the rounds before I also had close games and managed to win. Today the opponent was a little bit stronger in the last two points, that’s table tennis. I said the same yesterday (Friday); it is the small details that decide the winner and the loser. Yesterday I managed, today I didn’t."

On his feelings:
"Right now I’m very disappointed of course, but the overall picture is very good. I beat three players before this round and two of them are much higher ranked than me so my overall performance is good but I’m disappointed that I didn’t manage to win today too."

On opponent Darko Jorgić (SLO):
"He’s very strong, very strong mentally, very high quality in his strokes, both backhand and forehand. All his strokes are with the highest quality in the world, I would say. Lots of spin, lots of power and everything – he is a very compact player. Only in a good day I can beat such a player. Today I had a good day but it was not enough."

SLO

JORGIC DJORGIC Darko

On qualifying for semifinal and thereby securing a medal after beating Tiago Apolónia (POR) 4-3:

I feel amazing. This is the first semifinal in my career. I knew from the beginning that it was going to be a tough match. Tiago is an amazing player, a strong player from the both sides, he really has improved his backhand a lot. We know each other quite well. We were practising and preparing for these ’Europeans’ (European championships) together. I had to be aggressive from the beginning. I knew that Tiago wants to win this match, he wants to be on the podium and me too. I knew in my head that I have to be aggressive, I want to win a medal here and I’m really happy with my performance.

On what gave him the energy to come back after he was down 3-2:
”This is a quarterfinal, this is something special. Everybody wants to win a medal. I said in my head that ’maybe there’s only one chance in my career for me to play this semifinal’, so I had to calm down, to think about the next point, to think about what I would serve and what I will receive.
”I just said in my head, ’be aggressive, play your game and win your match, it doesn’t matter how’, even if it’s first-time luck, like now.”

On whether he could have imagined himself finishing on the podium before the competition:
”Of course not. I knew that in this tournament there’s maybe 20-30 players who can reach the final and I knew that it would be a tough tournament for everybody. Everybody wants to win a medal; it’s the Europeans, it’s something special, it’s every second year and I’m really happy that I reached this.”

On facing Kristian Karlsson (SWE) in the semifinal:
”I know that it will be an amazing and hard match against Kristian in the semifinal but let’s see, let’s focus, let’s calm down and try to fight from the beginning.”

On his celebrations after the win:
”It’s just coming. I was not thinking about how to celebrate. When I was leading 3-3, 9-6 I was just thinking of how to make the point. That’s the most important and then the celebration is just coming. You could see on the Top-16 when I jumped on the table. That’s me, that’s my celebration and I hope it’s also coming in the semifinal."