Ouseph helps England into Euro semis
Rajiv Ouseph won his second match of the European Mixed Team Championships as England beat the Netherlands to reach the semi-finals.
Hounslow’s world number 22 played his part by defeating Eric Pang 21-18 21-17 in the men’s singles.
That put England 2-0 up and, although they lost a rubber for the first time at the tournament when Fontaine Mica Chapman was beaten in the women’s singles, Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge secured victory by winning in the men’s doubles.
It maintains England’s record of having made the last four on every occasion bar one since the biennial event began in 1972.
After whitewashing both Ireland and hosts Belgium in the round-robin phase on Thursday, Chris and Gabby Adcock got their side off to a good start against the Dutch by winning the mixed doubles.
Ouseph, who has won the last three meetings with Pang, continued the momentum and, aside from losing the opening point, was never behind in either game.
World number 45 Peng did make him work for both, however, first narrowing a 10-3 advantage down to 14-12 and then sticking within two points of Ouseph, before the west Londoner closed out the first game.
Ouseph opened up a 7-0 lead in game two but the 33-year-old Dutchman managed to get level at 11-11.
The Englishman struggled to win consecutive points, always allowing Pang hope as the game sat in the balance at 18-17.
But Ouseph struck with the finish line in sight, reeling off three points in a row to clinch the match for England.
They will face Russia in Saturday’s semi-finals.
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