Member Associations | 3 Mar 2014

OOSTWOUDER and LI the Dutch champions

During the weekend of 1 and 2 March 2014 Zwolle was the place to be for Dutch top table tennis. In a packed Landstede Sportcentre, almost 2,000 people saw matches of the top national players. Ewout OOSTWOUDER(Smash ’70) met Barry WIJERS (FvT) in the final of the men’s singles tournament. This match was the copy of the final of the Dutch Masters earlier this year. Just like in January, OOSTWOUDER took the title. In the final OOSTWOUDER needed just four games to overcome WIJERS.

The toughest match for OOSTWOUDER on the final day was the quarterfinal earlier on Sunday. In this quarterfinal OOSTWOUDER faced a battle with Rajko GOMMERS. GOMMERS took a 3-1 lead, but OOSTWOUDER fought back and took the match 4-3. After that the winner of the title didn’t lose any more games. Laurens TROMER and Michel de BOER finished equally in third place.

In the women’s single tournament Li Jiao won her 10th consecutive national singles title. With this 10th title Li Jiao equals the 28 year old record of Bettine VRIESEKOOP. In the final LI Jiao faced fellow national team player LI Jie. LI Jie returned to competition after giving birth to her son last year September. The returning player seemed to miss some match rhythm, but despite this fact she played pretty constant against Li Jiao. In just four games Li Jiao claimed her 10the title. Third place went to Britt EERLAND and Yana TIMINA.

The doubles tournaments always bring unexpected wins and combinations. In women’s double the title was for Carla NOUWEN and Nicky ZETSEN. Earlier during the tournament, on Saturday, Zetsen won the mixed doubles title with Martijn de VRIES. Barry WIJERS played a great tournament with three out of three finals. He only succeeded in the men’s doubles final with partner Martin KHATCHANOV. In de mixed doubles en men’s single finals he had to settle for second place.

Wianka OVERBEEKE, courtesy NTTB, Wianka OVERBEEKE, courtesy NTTB