Luxembourg loss hurts Greece
The men’s national tennis team failed to return to the Europe/ Africa Zone, from which it was relegated last year, after a surprise loss to Luxembourg on Saturday. The absence of Greece’s top player Constantinos Economidis due to injury from the weekend games that determined the promotion tickets cost the national team heavily as it could not finish in the top two of the group played in Istanbul from Wednesday until yesterday. The match against Luxembourg started on Saturday but finished yesterday morning due to showers in the Turkish city. Dimitris Kleftakos beat his opponent 2-1 on Saturday but Alexander Jakupovic lost 2-1 in the other singles game, so everything was decided yesterday in the doubles. Kleftakos and Jakupovic won the first set but lost the other two, meaning Greece could not reach the top two spots since it had been defeated by host Turkey earlier in the week. Turkey and Estonia secured the tickets to Europe/Africa Zone II. «We are disappointed but we have to look to the future,» said national coach Giorgos Kalo-velonis. «The performances of Kleftakos, in his debut with the national team, was the most positive message we got from this event,» he added.
