Two 14 year old girls, Maria Constantinou from Cyprus and Semra Aksu from Turkey jointly won the Kalovelonis 2017 Tennis European Championship that took place in Athens on 3-9 April, 2017. The two girls secured the first place in the category of Double U14.

The two girls registered together as a couple for the tournament in U14 at the last minute and they first met at the courts of Kalavelonis Academy in Athens.

Even though they played for the first time together, the two girls recorded successive wins to reach the final, where they won Chiara Alesiani and Letizia Corsini from Italy with 6-1 and 6-3, securing the first place in the European Championship U14.

This has been the first time that a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish athlete played together as a team, making it real the slogan that Sports unite, and proving that ordinary people, regardless their ethnic origins and religions have nothing to separe and can achieve great victories.

Filios Christodoulou, President of Cyprus Tennis Federation stressed that sports unites, regardless origins, religions and state disputes and congratulated the two girls for their achievement.

Maria Constantinou said that her satisfaction is double, on the one hand because they won the tournament and she had the opportunity to honor her country. “I also note that this title was achieved along with an athlete from Turkey”, she added.

It is also worth noted that the win of the two girls, was published in the website of the Turkish Tennis Federation, and draw many positive comments in the social media.

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