Table tennis: 1, 2, 3 – 0 for Nîmes against Le Mans

Min-Hyung Jee et les Nîmoises ont merveilleusement conclu leur année 2024. MIDI LIBRE – LOÏC FELTRIN

Face au promu Le Mans, Piccolin et les siennes n’ont pas déjoué à l’occasion de la 8e journée de Pro A dames, finissant ainsi l’année civile sur une bonne note.

Around the table, racket in hand, facing a promoted team, Le Mans, did not seem to be an insurmountable task for Nîmes-Montpellier, a team contending for the play-offs and the Pro A podium at the end of the season.

However, four days after being eliminated in the 2nd round of the Women’s Europe Cup, last Sunday at home (Palais des sports Pierre-de-Coubertin in Montpellier), the Nîmes players, mentally, had swallowed their disappointment and, physically, recovered?

An hour and a half and a 3-0 victory later, Nîmes-Montpellier had answered in the affirmative. The Nîmes players had managed to switch well, thank you very much. The Italian Giorgia Piccolin, who was playing for the first time as number 1 for the Alliance – the Brazilian Takahashi was injured – put the Alliance on the right track, pushing aside (3-1) the experienced Samson Li, 42, a former French international.

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Rachel Moret comes out on top at the end of the suspense

Rachel Moret then took her place at the table, whose mission was to imitate her teammate by crossing paths with Sugita. Ranked lower than her opponent, to whom she had given up eighteen places (39th against 21st) in the national ranking, the Swiss player achieved a “performance”.

In the most closely fought match of the evening, Moret, who had two match points (one in the 4th set, another in the 5th) and also had to save two, ended up proving to be the strongest, scraping the last set at the end of the suspense (14-12).

With two wins in hand, Nîmes could see it coming. Min Hyung Jee, for her part, saw the Russian Ekaterina Fischer arrive at the table. An uninhibited Le Mans player who played her all, even allowing herself the luxury of leading 2 sets to 1 against an Australian-Korean who was under pressure at the time. But a champion remains a champion; Jee, top 3 in Pro A, in terms of winning percentage, two seasons ago, made her quality prevail.

''Three good matches but it was damn tough'', emphasizes Nîmes coach Florian Habuda

At the end of a breathless fifth set, where she led 7 to 2 before being caught 8-8, Jee finished the job, 11-9. The cry of relief uttered spoke volumes about the deliverance that was his. ''We played three good matches to win 3-0 but it was damn hard'', noted the Nîmes coach Florian Habuda, who could not have dreamed of a better birthday present.

A big relief, too, for the whole team. ''It really wasn't easy because we were disappointed with the European Cup and the elimination, noted the Gard coach. Le Mans had won their last match and came to us with absolutely nothing to lose.''

A success that the Nîmes women went to seek through talent and resilience, wonderfully closing the calendar year. In the standings, Nîmes-Montpellier repositions itself in 4th place, lying in wait for the podium, the objective.