Men’s semi-finals:

SERBIA bt HUNGARY 2-1

  Dennis Drenjovski bt Aron Balogh 7-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-8

  Ivan Djordjevic bt David Lukacs 11-9, 11-2, 11-3

  Vladislav Farkas lost to Peter Hoffman 3-11, 4-11

CROATIA bt GIBRALTAR 3-0

  Domagoj Spoljar bt Anthony Brindle 9-11, 11-3, 11-5, 5-11, 12-10

  Robert Petrovic bt Carl Gomez 11-4, 11-5, 7-11, 6-11, 11-3

  Marko Milek bt Nicholas de Haro 11-6, 11-8

Final:

CROATIA bt SERBIA 2-0

  Domagoj Spoljar bt Dennis Drenjovski 11-7, 11-6, 11-9

  Robert Petrovic bt Ivan Djordjevic 12-10, 9-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9

  Ozren Lapcevic v Goran Milicevic (dead rubber - match not played)

    3rd place play-off:

HUNGARY bt GIBRALTAR 3-0

  Aron Balogh bt Anthony Brindle 12-10, 11-6, 11-5

  Peter Hoffman bt Carl Gomez 8-11, 11-6, 11-0, 11-0

  Mate Vass bt Christian Navas 3-11, 11-8, 11-7

Women’s final:

HUNGARY bt POLAND 3-0

  Zsuzsa Biro bt Anna Jurkun 11-0, 11-4, 11-6

  Helga Kecse-Nagy bt Dominika Witkowska 11-4, 11-6, 11-4

  Krisztina Szekely bt Anna Sikorska 11-7, 11-9

Croatia & Hungary Win Maiden European Nations Challenge Cup Titles

The 2008 European Nations Challenge Cup – the European Squash Federation event in its 6^th year - produced maiden title victories for Croatia and hosts Hungary at the Griff Squash & Fitness Club in Budapest.

Domagoj Spoljar led Croatia to success in the men’s event.  The 33-year-old from Zagreb needed five games to overcome fellow squad number one Anthony Brindle in the semi-final as Croatia beat Gibraltar 3/0 to reach the final.

In the final, Spoljar put Croatia in the lead against Serbia after despatching Dennis Drenjovski 11-7, 11-6, 11-9.  But team-mate Robert Petrovic had to fight back from 2/1 down before beating the Serbian second string Ivan Djordjevic 12-10, 9-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9 to give Croatia the title for the first time.

Hungary swooped to a straightforward victory in the women’s final - Zsuzsa Biro, Helga Kecse-Nagy and Krisztina Szekely all winning in straight games to beat Poland 3/0.