Champions League Men | 28 Sep 2017

Russian teams showed no mercy

TTCLM Round 1, Thursday`s matches: Orenburg –Bogoria 3:0, UMMC – Chartes 3:0, Pontoise – Sporting 1:3

 

Three Round 1 matches of the 2017/18 TTCLM were held today, September 28th. Two in Group A,TTC Fakel Gazprom - K.S. Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki 3:0, AS Pontoise Cergy – Sporting Clube de Portugal 1:3, and one in Group B: TTSC UMMC – Chartres ASTT 3:0

 

Reigning champion and no. 1 seed Fakel Gazprom from Orenburg beat Polish side Bogoria in straight games, but not so easy. Two World`s top players, Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (no. 4) and Jun MIZUTANI (no. 8) have been extended to full distance by Masaki YOSHIDA (no. 19) and Pavel SIRUCEK (no. 162) respectively. Especially OVTCHAROV was faced with a huge challenge in the fifth set against Japanese, winning it by a narrow margin.

SIRUCEK led after third set against MIZUTANI, but 2016 Olympic bronze medalist easily won last two games. Mr. TTCLM, Vladimir SAMSONOV did his job against Daniel GORAK, to confirm first victory in the 2017/18 TTCLM.

 

Newcomer in the TTCLM, Sporting Clube de Portugal upset two times TTCLM winner AS Pontoise Cergy, playing in France. Joao MONTEIRO decided the winner, as he beat both Can AKKUZU (in the fifth set 8:8, 11:8) and Marcos FREITAS, while the third Sporting`s point came from Diogo CARVALHO against Niagol STOYANOV. Best player of host side, FREITAS overcame Aruna QUADRI who debuted in the TTCLM.

Two teammates, two left-handed players from the Portugal`s National Team, Marcos FREITAS and Joao MONTEIRO met in the crucial, fourth clash. They won together Team`s gold at the LIEBHERR 2014 ITTF European Championships, and silver two weeks ago in Luxembourg. But, tonight they were fierce rivals.

MONTEIRO led 2:0 (9:6) against FREITAS, but host won five consecutive points to secure fourth set. In the fourth one, guest reversed the score from 4:7 to 9:8, but Pontoise`s player had two opportunities to provide the fifth game (10:9, 11:10). After all, MONTEIRO won clash, attacking without calculation in decisive moments.

 

The 2012 TTCLM runner-up UMMC lost just two sets against 2013 runner-up Chartres. It was a good team work of Russian side which had problems with injuries last week (VLASOV and SHIBAEV). Japanese Maharu YOSHIMURA debuted in TTCLM by clear win against Romain LORENTZ. Andrej GACINA and Alexander SHIBAEV defeated Robert GARDOS and Alexandre RIBINOT respectively.

 

2017/18 TTCLM Round 1

 

GROUP A

 

TTC Fakel Gazprom - K.S. Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki 3:0

Dimitrij OVTCHAROV - Masaki YOSHIDA 3:2 (13:15, 12:14, 11:4, 11:4, 12:10)

Jun MIZUTANI - Pavel SIRUCEK 3:2 (11:13, 11:7, 5:11, 11:5, 11:3)

Vladimir SAMSONOV - Daniel GORAK 3:0 (11:6, 11:5, 11:9)

 

AS Pontoise Cergy – Sporting Clube de Portugal 1:3

Marcos FREITAS - Quadri ARUNA 3:0 (11:5, 11:9, 11:8)

Can AKKUZU - Joao MONTEIRO 2:3 (2:11, 15:13, 6:11, 11:6, 8:11)

Niagol STOYANOV – Diogo CARVALHO 2:3 (11:4, 9:11, 10:12, 11:5, 5:11)

FREITAS – MONTEIRO 1:3 (5:11, 9:11, 11:9, 12:14)

 

GROUP B

 

TTSC UMMC – Chartres ASTT 3:0

Andrej GACINA - Robert GARDOS 3:2 (5:11, 7:11, 11:8, 11:7, 12:10)

Maharu YOSHIMURA - Romain LORENTZ 3:0 (11:9, 11:3, 11:8)

Alexander SHIBAEV - Alexandre ROBINOT 3:0 (11:5, 13:11, 11:4)