Radović is better than Bakić for the title in Laško

Montenegrin table tennis player Filip Radović is the winner of the 40 coefficient international tournament in Laško, Slovenia.

In the final match, he defeated his friend from the national team, Luka Bakić, 3:0 (11:6, 11:9 and 11:9), after eliminating the Chinese Lian Hao 3:0 (11:7, 11 :4 and 11:8).

In Laško, Radović defeated Polish Pavel Vlodika 3:0 (11:7, 11:5 and 13:11) and Italian Lorenzo Cardua 3:1 (11:3, 11:9, 7:11 and 11:6) in group, while in the quarter-finals he was better than the Japanese Mahiro Funayama 3:1 (7:11, 11:5, 11:7 and 11:9).

Radović won the third international tournament this year.

He was happy in Linjan and last week in Podgorica.

"An excellent result in Laško, few expected that the two of us would play in the final of the tournament, which has the quality of the World Championship. Of all the best, only the world number one, Patrik Čajnovski, did not participate. This in no way diminishes the importance and competition in Laško," he said is Radovic.

He emphasized that the results from Podgorica and Laško confirm their placement in the world ranking list.

"After this success, I should continue to train even harder, in order to repeat the game at the European Championship in Sheffield and win one of the medals," pointed out Radović. Bakić won his place in the final with a 3:0 victory over the Austrian Christian Gardoš (11:7, 11:7 and 11:5).

He finished the competition in the group as the first place winner, with victories against the Argentinian Andreas Neiro 3:0 (11:6, 11:4 and 11:4), the Czech Ivan Karabec 3:1 (10:12, 11:2, 11:2 and 11 :6) and Matea Skuta from the Netherlands 3:0 (11:2, 11:0 and 11:6).

In the next two rounds of the knockout phase, he eliminated Komet Akbar from Indonesia 3:1 (11:4, 7:11, 11:7 and 16:14) and Poland's Igor Misthal 3:0 (12:10, 11:8 and 12: 10).

"I am very satisfied with the tournament, this is my best result in Laško. Last year I was stopped in the semi-finals. I did not expect to beat several players who are ahead of me in the ranking, to play the final with Filip Radović. I am satisfied with what I showed from the beginning to the end of the tournament," Bakić said.

Montenegrin table tennis in Laško was also represented by Slobodanka Girešić in the category S4 (persons in wheelchairs), but she was stopped in the group.

Montenegrin table tennis players at one of the strongest world tournaments for athletes with disabilities were led by coaches Vladimir Marić and Čedomir Damjanović.

The tournament gathered more than 400 table tennis players from 51 countries around the world, and in the S10 category, in which Radović and Bakić competed, 14 of the 15 best players from the World Ranking List participated.