Two years after Sofia POLCANOVA of Austria stood on top of the podium in Linz, the European Women’s Singles title will once again be up for grabs, with a deep and experienced field heading to the European Championships in Ljubljana and several of the players who shaped the closing stages of the 2024 Championships ready for another challenge. Arena Stožice will host the 2026 European Individual Championships from 11 to 18 October, and Women’s Singles will run throughout the eight-day programme. Qualification begins on Sunday and continues until Tuesday, before the main draw gets underway with the Round of 64 on Wednesday. The quarter-finals are scheduled for Saturday, with the semi-finals and title match on the final day of competition. POLCANOVA arrives in Slovenia as the defending champion and one of the most decorated players in the field. The 32-year-old Austrian is the two-time reigning European Women’s Singles champion, having won the title in Munich in 2022 before successfully defending it in Linz two years later. She also won Women’s Doubles gold in Munich, while in Linz she added Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles silver. Her record at the Europe Top 16 includes silver medals in 2023 and 2024 and three bronze medals, while she also won Women’s Doubles silver at the 2025 World Championships in Doha. Her 2024 campaign gathered momentum as the tournament progressed. After opening with a straight-games victory, she beat Veronika MATIUNINA of Ukraine 4-0 and then overcame Sweden’s Christina KALLBERG 4-0. In the quarter-finals, POLCANOVA defeated Germany’s Sabine WINTER 4-1 before overcoming Nina MITTELHAM, also of Germany, by the same score in the semi-final. In the title match, she beat Romania’s Bernadette SZOCS 4-1 to retain the European crown. This time, however, Sabine WINTER will enter the competition as the No. 1 seed. The 33-year-old German arrives in Ljubljana as the reigning Europe Top 16 champion after winning the title in Montreux earlier this year. She is also a two-time European Women’s Doubles champion and a five-time European Team champion, with her most recent Team gold coming in Zadar in 2025. Her individual European Championships record includes Women’s Singles bronze from Munich in 2022. WINTER was also among the leading contenders in Linz two years ago, reaching the quarter-finals before POLCANOVA ended her run with a 4-1 victory. Beyond European competition, she has won three World Championships Team bronze medals, in 2010, 2022 and 2026, as well as Mixed Team bronze at the 2025 World Cup and Singles bronze at the 2026 World Cup in Macau. Bernadette SZOCS, the No. 2 seed and 2024 runner-up, returns with another opportunity to challenge for the title. The 31-year-old Romanian is the reigning European Women’s Singles silver medallist and also won Women’s Doubles silver in Linz. She is a three-time European champion, with Team titles from 2017 and 2019 and Women’s Doubles gold from Munich in 2022. At the Europe Top 16, SZOCS won gold in 2018, silver in 2019 and 2026 and bronze in 2021, 2022 and 2024. She was also a double champion at the 2023 European Games, winning both Women’s Singles and Team gold. Beyond Europe, she won Women’s Doubles silver at the 2025 World Championships in Doha and Team bronze in London in 2026. SZOCS enjoyed an impressive journey to the Linz final. She opened her main-draw campaign with a 4-0 victory and continued past Sweden’s Linda BERGSTROM and Charlotte LUTZ of France before overcoming Spain’s Maria XIAO 4-1 in the semi-final. The strength at the top of the draw extends even further. Germany’s Ying HAN is the No. 3 seed, while defending champion POLCANOVA is No. 4. HAN, 43, is a five-time European champion, with four Team titles and Mixed Doubles gold from Alicante in 2018. She has also won the Europe Top 16 three times, in 2022, 2023 and 2025, and has two European Games Team titles. Her international record includes Team silver at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and World Championships Team bronze in 2022 and 2026. France’s Jia Nan YUAN follows among the leading entries. The 41-year-old won Mixed Doubles gold at the 2022 European Championships in Munich and Team bronze in Malmö in 2023, while she lifted the Europe Top 16 trophy in 2024 and returned to the podium with bronze in 2026. She was also part of the French team that won bronze at the 2024 World Championships in Busan. Nina MITTELHAM adds further strength to the German challenge. The 29-year-old is a five-time European champion, with Women’s Doubles gold from 2018, Mixed Doubles gold from 2020 and three consecutive Team titles in 2021, 2023 and 2025. She was the Women’s Singles silver medallist in Munich in 2022 and took bronze in Linz two years later. MITTELHAM also has two European Games gold medals and World Championships Team bronze medals from Chengdu 2022 and London 2026. France will arrive with considerable depth. Prithika PAVADE, 22, already has four senior European Championships bronze medals – two in Mixed Doubles and two in the Team event – and was part of France’s bronze-medal-winning team at the 2024 World Championships in Busan. Her compatriot Charlotte LUTZ, 21, won European Team bronze in Malmö in 2023 and World Championships Team bronze in Busan the following year. Spain’s Maria XIAO was one of the major figures in Linz. The 32-year-old won the European Mixed Doubles title and reached the Women’s Singles semi-finals, taking bronze. She also has Women’s Doubles bronze from Munich in 2022. Few players in Ljubljana can match the longevity of Romania’s Elizabeta SAMARA. At 37, she is an eight-time European champion, including the Women’s Singles title won in Yekaterinburg in 2015, alongside two Women’s Doubles, two Mixed Doubles and three Team crowns. Her European Championships collection also includes ten silver and six bronze medals. SAMARA won Europe Top 16 silver in 2025 and European Games Team gold in 2023, while beyond Europe she has World Championships Team bronze from London 2026 and World Cup Singles silver from 2012. The

Defending champion Alexis LEBRUN of France will return to the European Championships in Ljubljana with his sights set on retaining the Men’s Singles crown he won two years ago in Linz. With many of Europe’s leading players in the field and Slovenia’s Darko JORGIC preparing to compete in front of a home crowd, the battle for the title at Arena Stožice brings together familiar rivals and a strong group of challengers. The 2026 European Individual Championships will be played from 11 to 18 October at Arena Stožice, with the Men’s Singles competition beginning with the qualification stage on Sunday. The main draw starts with the Round of 64 on Wednesday, followed by the Round of 32 on Thursday, the Round of 16 on Friday and the quarter-finals on Saturday. The semi-finals and final will bring the Championships to a close on Sunday. Two years ago in Linz, France’s Alexis LEBRUN produced a memorable run to the title. He defeated Germany’s Dang QIU 4-1 in the quarter-final before overcoming Truls MOREGARD of Sweden 4-0 in the semi-final. In the title match, LEBRUN defeated Germany’s Benedikt DUDA 4-0 to become European champion. DUDA had reached the final after an impressive campaign of his own. He advanced past France’s Felix LEBRUN 4-0 in the quarter-final before defeating compatriot Dimitrij OVTCHAROV 4-2 in the semi-final. MOREGARD and OVTCHAROV therefore completed the 2024 Men’s Singles podium as bronze medallists. Many of the leading protagonists from Linz are back, and their medal records underline the depth of the field heading to Ljubljana. France’s Felix LEBRUN, 20, already boasts an impressive senior record. His European achievements include Men’s Doubles gold in Linz in 2024 and Team gold at the 2025 European Championships in Zadar, alongside European Games Men’s Singles gold in 2023. He also won two bronze medals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Men’s Singles and the Men’s Team event, and has collected silver and bronze medals at World Championships level. His older brother, Alexis LEBRUN, 23, arrives as the defending European Men’s Singles champion after his double gold in Singles and Doubles in Linz. He added Team gold with France in Zadar in 2025 and has won the Europe Top 16 in each of the past two editions, in 2025 and 2026. His international record also includes Olympic Team bronze from Paris 2024 and medals at three World Championships. Sweden’s Truls MOREGARD, 24, returns after winning Men’s Singles bronze and Men’s Doubles silver in Linz. A European Team champion with Sweden in Malmö in 2023, MOREGARD has also collected three Europe Top 16 medals. Beyond Europe, he won two silver medals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Men’s Singles and the Men’s Team event, and has twice reached the World Championships podium in Singles. For the home crowd, particular attention will be on Slovenia’s Darko JORGIC, 28. The 2022 European Men’s Singles silver medallist has also won two European Team bronze medals and enjoyed exceptional success at the Europe Top 16, winning the title three consecutive times from 2022 to 2024 and adding three silver medals. Germany brings an extraordinary amount of experience to Ljubljana. Benedikt DUDA, 32, returns as the European Men’s Singles silver medallist after reaching the Linz final. A two-time European Team champion, he also won Team silver in 2023, Team bronze in 2025 and Europe Top 16 bronze earlier this year. Patrick FRANZISKA, 34, has one of the deepest medal collections among the German contingent. He is a European Men’s Doubles champion and four-time European Team champion, while his individual record includes Men’s Singles bronze from Alicante in 2018. He won the Europe Top 16 in 2021 and is a three-time European Games champion. His international honours include Olympic Team silver and four World Championships medals. Germany’s Dang QIU, 29, knows what it takes to win the individual crown, having become European Men’s Singles champion in Munich in 2022. He is also a European champion in Mixed Doubles and the Team event, a double European Games gold medallist and the 2023 Europe Top 16 silver medallist. At World level, he has Team silver from the World Championships and Mixed Team bronze from the World Cup. Sweden’s Anton KALLBERG, 29, won European Team gold on home soil in Malmö in 2023 before taking Men’s Doubles silver in Linz a year later. His record also includes three further European Championships bronze medals and Team silver at the 2023 European Games. At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, he helped Sweden claim Team silver. France’s Simon GAUZY, 31, is another former European Singles finalist, having taken silver in Budapest in 2016. He added European Team gold in Zadar in 2025 to a collection that also includes five European Championships bronze medals. GAUZY has also won medals at two European Games, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and three World Championships. Few players in the field can match the medal collection of Germany’s Dimitrij OVTCHAROV, 38. The two-time European Men’s Singles champion has also won eight European Team titles and was back on the individual podium in Linz two years ago, taking bronze. He is a five-time Europe Top 12/Top 16 winner and a three-time European Games champion. His international record includes six Olympic medals, five World Championships medals and the 2017 Men’s World Cup title. The depth continues well beyond those names. Tomislav PUCAR of Croatia, Marcos FREITAS of Portugal, Eduard IONESCU of Romania, Alvaro ROBLES of Spain, Kristian KARLSSON of Sweden, Jonathan GROTH of Denmark and Andrej GACINA of Croatia are among the experienced players directly qualified for the main draw, alongside rising talents Andre BERTELSMEIER of Germany, Milosz REDZIMSKI of Poland, Iulian CHIRITA of Romania and Thibault PORET of France. JORGIC will inevitably carry additional attention in Ljubljana. The Slovenian star reached the Round of 16 in Linz two years ago, and this time he will have the opportunity to challenge Europe’s best in front of the home crowd at Arena Stožice. The road into the main draw will already provide