Tin-Tin Ho won the opening match for England against Poland in their second and final European Championships group match today, but the team was beaten 3-1 overall to leave them bottom of the group.

The Poles, like previous opponents Sweden, are a higher-ranked team and it was a double for their leading player Natalia Bajor (WR 91) which went furthest towards determining the result.

Bajor defeated Maria Tsaptsinos in match 2 and Ho in match 4, both in three straight, to add to Anna Wegrzyn’s (WR 253) victory over Charlotte Bardsley in match 3.

Earlier, Ho had beaten Katarzyna Wegrzyn (WR 294) in a close opening tie – it was almost a case of having to win it twice as, having taken the first two games Ho lost the third 14-12 and then the fourth, before regaining the initiative to take the decider 11-9.

England’s men have their first match, against Serbia in Group C, at 2pm today and then face Slovakia at 11am tomorrow.

Result

Group F
Poland 3 England 1
Tin-Tin Ho bt Katarzyna Wegrzyn 3-2 (12-10, 11-8, 12-14, 9-11, 11-9)
Natalia Bajor bt Maria Tsaptsinos 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 12-10)
Anna Wegrzyn bt Charlotte Bardsley 3-1 (11-9, 9-11, 11-7, 11-8)
Bajor bt Ho 3-0 (11-7, 16-14, 11-9)