Balkan Team Championships - Day two (pre-final)

First of all an apology: our women's team actually finished second in their group yesterday. In a group of four they lost two matches, but so did their opponents Slovenia and

Turkey. Going back on games-countback - it turns out Serbia had the best difference! So they finished second and progressed to the semis, where the Greek girls made short work of them. However, they recovered well and gave the Slovenian women's team a real fight for their money for third places. Alexandra recovered from twisting her knee but lost 2:3, but then Jelena put on a tremendous performance winning 3:1 at position 1. Of particular note wereher excellent serves! Anja was up against a hell of a player at second string (she should have been playing one) and was beaten 3:0, but she fought well and extended the rallies. Fourth place is a great result for our team and the girls can be proud of themselves.

We played Croatia this morning (they placed their second team in the quarters) and won 2:0. Dennis played superbly

dropping about 10 points in three games against Vedran. I was next up and managed a 3:0 victory too, but served out five times and made about eight mistakes in game one alone. Didn't feel too comfortable with my rackets today but hopefully the touch will come back in the final.

The match of the tournament so far was Bulgaria against Slovenia in the other semis. The strong Slovenian number one was impressive in his 3:0 victory, but Nicki leveled it for Bulgaria with a solid 3:0 win at third string. The match at position too was awesome. The crowd got really in to it with the Bulgarian ladies jumping up and down with every point won. Stoli, the Bulgarian, was down in every game but managed some great comeback from 3:8 down, but he lost the crucial tie-break in game two and a close third game 9:11. It was tight all the way but the Slovenian did well to see it out 3:0.

Right now the ladies' final is on - Greece versus Croatia. Greece are favourites to win but the Croatians might feel uplifted by the support they are getting here. We are on afterwards, with Dennis playing Martin at first string to kick things off. Serbian Squash president is here to support the teams, so we are ready to go!