Leuven: With the newly formatted 2015 European Mixed Team Championships kicked off in Leuven, Belgium on Wednesday, both Ireland and Netherlands made a brilliant start to defeat their opponents on the first day at 2015 European Mixed Team Championships.
Ireland were facing host nation Belgium in their first match of the championship, a pivotal tie as they needed a win before facing England tomorrow who are currently ranked second in Europe.
Sam and Chloe Magee were first on court in the mixed doubles event and the Magee brother and sister paring triumphed by beating Nick Marcoen and Flore Vandenhoucke in two games 21-10, 21-17.
Men’s singles player Scott Evans continued his run of good form and secured the second victory against Yuhan Tan, beating the Belgian 21-13, 21-17. Chloe Magee was back on court for a second time in the women’s singles to face Belgium’s Lianne Tan who tried hard to match Magee’s game but it was the Irish double Olympian who took the match in 2 sets, 21-12, 21-17 to put Ireland at 3-0.
After the tie has already been decided in favor of Ireland, playing without pressure, Scott Evans and Sam Magee paired up in men’s doubles as they stretched Matijs Dierickx and Freek Golinski of the host country to the limit before bowing out 14-21, 21-17, 15-21, while the younger women’s doubles pair Sara Boyle and Rachael Darragh of Ireland lost to Steffi Annys and Flore Vanerhoucke 21-13, 21-12.
In the match between the Dutch and the Poles, mixed double pair Jacco Arends & Selena Piek of Netherlands beat Robert Mateusiak and Agnieszka Wojtkowska in two games to give the Dutch 1-0 lead.
Meanwhile, in the men’s singles match, veteran Eric Pang of Netherlands fought back from a game down to beat Michal Rogalski 14-21, 21-13, 21-18. Soraya De Visch Eijbergen followed Pang’s singles victory by winning the women’s singles match 21-14, 21-12 in 33 minutes.
Netherlands won the tie with 5-0, and will face the tournament favorite – Denmark on Thursday.
