Popov proves he’s got the stamina to match Chinese stars

YOUNGSTER Christo Popov of France is certainly the player of the day.

The 20-year-old’s dogged determination won the admiration yesterday for pushing China to the limit in two events during the Group B tie. France lost 0-5 but not after a five-hour marathon battle.

His singles match alone lasted for one hour and 58 minutes as he came so close to upstaging Lu Guangzu before going down 23-25, 26-24, 15-21 in the opening match.

While many others would have collapsed after the energy-sapping match, the Bulgarian-born but playing for France, returned hungrier for the last match with his brother Toma Junior Popov and together, they fought for 61 minutes before losing 22-20, 16-21, 16-21 to Liu Yuchen-Ou Xuanyi in the men’s doubles.

Earlier, France have lost all the other points through Arnaud Merkle who went down 19-21, 10-21 to Zhao Junpeng; Alex Lanier (lost 14-21, 14-21 to Li Shifeng); and Fabian Delrue-William Villeger (lost 17-21, 15-21 to He Jiting-Zhao Haodong).

“It was a tough match, very long – I think the longest match for me on court. One side was very slow and the other side was faster and there were long rallies. He won today physically. Tactically I was better in the third game,” said Popov.

“It’s not every year that France have challenged China, and we have a brilliant team coming up with young guns. Today we have the level to compare ourselves, maybe not win every match, but we can make it difficult for China, for sure. And that’s what we showed in the first match.”