Champions League Men | 17 Jun 2017

The 2016/17 TTCLM finalists continue as two top seeds in 2017/18

Reigning champion Orenburg and actual runner-up Borussia have unchanged line-ups. Newcomer from Poland K.S. Dekorglass Dzialdowo signed world No. 7 WONG Chun Ting

 

The 2017/18 TTCLM Seeding list displays same two names on the top. Like in the previous seven years, Fakel Gazprom Orenburg tops the list, will Borussia Dusseldorf is first behind. These two clubs concluded the 2016/17 season, as Russian side won its fourth title in last six seasons.

 

Orenburg signed domestic player Alexey LIVENTSOV, who will replace Alexey SMIRNOV, but their powerful trio who dominated in the 2016/17 edition will be in the action again: Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (World No. 5), Jun MIZUTANI (No. 6) and Vladimir SAMSONOV (No. 12).

 

There are no significant changes in all German clubs. Borussia targets its 11th TTCLM title with Timo BOLL (World No. 8), Stefan FEGERL (No. 19), Kristian KARLSSON (No. 32) and one of promising European players Anton KALLBERG (No. 92). Third seed of 2017/18 TTCLM Ochsenhausen, the 2009 runner-up, showed in the previous season that future belongs to them: Simon GAUZY (No. 16), Hugo CALDERANO (No. 17), Yuto MURAMATSU (No. 21), Jakub DYJAS (No. 55) and Joao GERALDO (No. 73).

 

No. 4 seed and Russian champion UMMC signed World No. 32 from Japan Maharu YOSHIMURA. Saarbrucken (No. 5 seed) has same four players (APOLONIA, FRANZISKA, TOKIC, BAUM).

 

Two new participants are inscribed on the 6th and 7th spot, K.S. Dekorglass Dzialdowo from Poland and Stella Sport La Romagne from France. Polish side signed World No. 7 WONG Chun Ting from Hong Kong who will compose strong line-up with Kenta MATSUDAIRA (No. 18, Japan) and WANG Yang (No. 61, Slovakia). French club, actual ETTU Cup winner, will have big ambitions for sure.

 

Double TTCLM winner Pontoise and no. 8 seed extended its contract with Marcos FREITAS. Two more French clubs, no. 9 GV Hennebont and no. 10 Chartres ASTT, are concluding the list of favorites for the quarter-final stage.

 

However, no. 14 seed Eslovs showed two years ago (finished as runner-up) that everyone can dream about finals. It was a good example for TTC Ostrava 2016 (no. 11 seed), K.S. Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki (no. 12), one more newcomer Sporting Clube de Portugal (no. 13), SPG Walter Wels (no. 15) and Roskilde Berdtennis BTK 61 (no. 16).

 

 

The 2017/18 TTCLM Seeding list

 

1 Fakel-Gazprom Orenburg (RUS) 8343

2 Borussia Düsseldorf (GER) 7658

3 TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen (GER) 7556

4 TTSC UMMC (RUS) 7225

5 FC Saarbrücken TT (GER) 7130

6 K.S. Dekorglass Dzialdowo (POL) 7036

7 Stella Sport La Romagne (FRA) 6959

8 AS Pontoise Cergy TT (FRA) 6946

9 GV Hennebont TT (FRA) 6908

10 Chartres ASTT (FRA) 6683

11 TTC Ostrava 2016 (CZE) 6552

12 K.S. Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki (POL) 6390

13 Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR) 6332

14 Eslövs AI BTK (SWE) 6329

15 SPG Walter Wels (AUT) 6100

16 Roskilde Berdtennis BTK 61 (DEN) 5928