The best European Players will once again gather at the most prestige Continental tournament on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th February 2023. China Construction Bank Europe Top 16 Cup is only two weeks away and Montreux is ready to host the 51st edition of the tournament. The list of the competitors is impressive and the good matches and fights are guaranteed. In Women’s Event will play: HAN Ying of Germany Sofia POLCANOVA of Austria Nina MITTELHAM of Germany YUAN Jia Nan of France YU Fu of Portugal Bernadette SZOCS of Romania Hana MATELOVA of Czechia NI Xia Lian of Luxembourg Elizabeta SAMARA of Romania Barbora BALAZOVA of Slovakia Linda BERGSTROM of Sweden SHAO Jieni of Portugal Georgina POTA of Hungary Rachel MORET of Switzerland Christina KALLBERG of Sweden Natalia BAJOR of Poland. For Barbora BALAZOVA it will be her sixth appearance at Top 16. “ It is always a privilege to play Top 16 and I think it is probably the nicest tournament to participate and play in Europe ” said BALAZOVA. “I always enjoy playing at the tournament and enjoy the special atmosphere that spectators make there.” Barbora was on duty in Jordan this week at the WTT Contender Amman. In the first round she met one of the possible adversaries in Montreux SHAO Jieni. “Actually I had to give up my match against SHAO Jieni as I got injured. So I cannot really comment the match. That is the reason also why is hard for me to comment my current shape. So far I would say I did not start this year perfectly and also I had some health issues.” BALAZOVA remained cautious answering about this year competition. “My goal for now is to get healthy and to be able to get some practice before Top 16. What I think about the list of players who will come to Montreux is that the tournament is going to be pretty interesting. There are many new players this year.” How you comment the past 12 months between two edition of Top 16? “I would say last year was challenging for me but definitely successful. I was able to lead my team to quarterfinals at the World Championships in China. That was a very special moment since we made a history for Slovakia. Maybe one of disappointing moments was losing first round of European Championships in Singles as I felt in pretty good shape there ” stated Barbora BALAZOVA.
KS Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki
KS Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki won both quarterfinal legs of the Europe Cup Men against another Poland’s represntative Polski Cukier Gwiazda Bydgoszcz. In the opening leg they went full distance but tonight Bogoria concluded the duel in four matches. Panagiotis GIONIS beat Artur GRELA (11:7 9:11 11:7 11:4) and Vladislav URSU (10:12 12:10 11:8 11:6). Ursu managed to overcame Marek BADOWSKI previusly (11:7 7:11 8:11 11:7 6:5). Miłosz REDZIMSKI overcame Carlos CABALLERO (11:7 12:10 12:10). In the semis are already: AS Pontoise Cergy TT K.S. Dekorglass Dzialdowo and GV Hennebont TT.
MOREHARD and HAN at the top of February Rankings
The February Ranking has been published today. You can find complete list at the ETTU web site here. The season is still young and there are no changes at the top of the listings comparing previous month. Leading name in Men’s senior rankings is Swede Truls MOREGARD followed by Slovenia’s Darko JORGIC Germany’s Timo BOLL Swede Kristian KARLSSON Germany’s Dimitrij OVTCHAROV QIU Dang Patrick FRANZISKA Slovak WANG Yang Swede Mattias FALCK and Liam PITCHFORD of England at the position no.10. All top 10 players remained at the same positions as on the January’s lists. Only player who made significant move in top 50 is Yaroslav ZHMUDENKO of Ukraine who moved 8 positions up to the position no. 36. In Women’s senior rankings Germany’s HAN Ying is at the top followed by Austria’s Sofia POLCANOVA. Nina MITTELHAM of Germany Bernadette SZOCS of Romania YUAN Jia Nan of France occupies three places below keeping the same positions as in the previous month. Elizabeta SAMARA of Romania and SHAN Xiaona of Germany moved one place up each whilst Luxembourg’s NI Xia LIan went two places down. No. nine and ten are YU Fu and SHAO Jieni of Portugal. At the Under 21 Men’s rankings Truls MOREGARD holds the leading position too. Brothers Alexis and Felix LEBRUN of France are at the positions two and three followed by Milosz REDZIMSKI of Poland and Csaba ANDRAS of Hungary. France occupies top two positions in Under 21 Women’s Rankings. Prithika PAVADE and Camille LUTZ are no. one and two followed by Croatia’s Hana ARAPOVIC Germany’s Annett KAUFMANN and Turkiye’s Ozge YILMAZ. Felix LEBRUN is not at the top of the Under 19 list in February. He moved down to the position no. 3 and gave his spot to his compatriot Hugo DESCHAMPS. Eduard IOESCU of Romania moved four positions up to take the second spot. In Under 19 girls list Elena ZAHARIA of Romania and Prithika PAVADE are the leading names and at position no. three is Annett KAUFMANN who went three places up. All previous rankings are available on the link
First win for Italy in Stage one
In the fourth round of the Stage one of the European Championships 2023 Italy recorded first win. For Slovakia that was first defeat in this stage of the Event. Italy won 3:0 in Bratislava. John OYEBODE beat Adam KLAJBER (11:9 11:8 11:8) Jordy PICCOLIN prevailed against Filip DELINCAK (11:3 11:8 11:8) and in the closest match tonight Carlo ROSSI beat Samuel ARPAS after five games (11:9 7:11 10:12 11:6 11:9). “We played a good match” commened coach Lorenzo NANNONI.” Oyebode’s task was not easy but at the end he was better than KLAJBER. PICCOLIN is stronger than DELINCAK and in fact the match went away. ROSSI’S third challenge against ARPAS was dangerous. The Slovak was runner-up in the European cadet championship last year and despite being young he knows how to play. I imagined it wouldn’t be easy for Carlo in reality he should have won 3-1. Instead he lost the third game by failing to close the match with three match balls. However he managed to reverse the trend. I am satisfied it’s the right reward for these guys who needed to win an equal match between young teams”. Previously Italy lost to Czechia twice and Slovakia in Italy. Slovakia also beat Czechia. There is only one match to be played in Group A5 – Czechia vs. Slovakia on March 22nd.
Kosovo TTA marks an impressive increase of registered clubs and female athletes in the last three years
The Kosovo Table Tennis Association in the last three years has recorded an increase of more than 50 percent of registered clubs. According to statistical data in 2020 26 clubs were registered in the KTTA whilst in 2023 – 44 clubs are registered. “This result was achieved thanks to the continuous commitment of EB members high volume promotion and the large number of activities carried out by KTTA during a calendar year both in local and international events ” explained Kosovo TTA President and NOC Board Member Jeton BEQIRI. “KTT has an amazing increase of female athletes of more than 180 pervent from 2020 with 60 players to 170 players in 2022. In addition the number of female clubs during year 2020 went from 8 to 17 in year 2023.” KTTA President Jeton BEQIRI promised that KTT will continue to be focused on increasing the number of its membership athletes and especially increasing the participation of women in sports guaranteeing gender equality in all its activities and processes including the athletes with disabilities.
European Table Tennis Union Strengthens Ties with FFTT
The European Table Tennis Union visited the headquarters of the French Table Tennis Federation in Paris. Acting President Pedro MOURA and Deputy Secretary General Galia DVORAK had the opportunity to meet with President Gilles ERB Technical Director Jean-Nicolas BARELIER and Executive Committee Member in charge of International Relations Michel GADAL. ETTU Secretary General Pierre KASS joined the meeting online. During the visit the leaders discussed ways to enhance cooperation and collaboration between the two organizations with the aim of promoting the growth and development of table tennis across Europe and the important role new tendencies in our sport like Virtual Table Tennis will be playing in it. “We are grateful for the warm welcome we received from our friends at the French Table Tennis Federation and we are confident that this visit will lead to a stronger and more productive relationship between our organizations as we also seeking for partnerships in the same common projects ” said Acting President Pedro MOURA.
ASD Quattro Mori Cagliari recorded win in France
ALCL TT Grand-Quevilly failed to take advantage of home soil in the opening leg of the Europe Cup Women semifinal. Italian club ASD Quattro Mori Cagliari recorded 3:1 victory. Tania PLAIAN led the club to the successful outcome of the duel with two victories. Romania’s player beat Anis SALPIN (6:11 11:6 11:5 17:15) and Isa COK (11:3 11:6 11:8). “I am very proud of our team because last year we didn’t win and we didn’t play our best table tennis. Today we played really really good we knew very well what we have to do and in the end today was our day. We hope to reach the final and to play again our best game ” said Tania. Andreea DRAGOMAN gave Italian side dream start with the win over COK (11:5 12:10 11:6). “After we lost against them last year we are happy we won today. It’s a very good start from us in this semifinal we were very motivated and united to win this match and we hope we can do the same in the second leg against them ” said DRAGOMAN. The only point for French side was recorded by Samson LI who beat Eden OFFIONG (11:5 11:2 11:7).
ETTU offers deepest condolences to the families of the earthquake victims
The ETTU family expresses its deep sadness over the devastating earthquake that hit Türkiye and Syria. ETTU offers deepest condolences to the families of the earthquake victims and wishes a speedy recovery to the injured. Our solidarity and our thoughts go out to the communities struck by this disastrous tragedy and all involved in the search and rescue efforts.
Apuania Carrara clinched the Italian Cup for the fourth time
Apuania Carrara confirmed its place on the throne of the Men’s Italian Cup and lifted the trophy for the fourth time in their history. At PalaTennistavolo “Elia Mazzi” in Castel Goffredo they beat 3-1 the eternal rivals of Top Spin Messina WatchesTogether. In the match for the third step of the podium Tennistavolo Norbello prevailed 3-2 over Tennistavolo Genova Cervino. The medals and the cup were presented by president of FITeT Renato DI NAPOLI. In the opening doubles of the finals Mihai BOBOCICA and Croatia’s Tomislav PUCAR won the first and the third game and Matteo MUTTI and Portugal’s Joäo MONTEIRO levelled in the second and in the fourth. In the fifth game the players of Apuania Carrara were 3-1 down and recovered up to 5-3 they missed the first two match-point and converted the third. In the singles Tomislav PUCAR beat Leonardo MUTTI in straight games and Matteo MUTTI overcame BOBOCICA 3-1. It was not enough for Top Spin Messina because right after PUCAR accounted for Leonardo MUTTI 3-0 and closed the encounter. “We knew” coach and the captain of Apuania Carrara Claudio VOLPI explained “this final would be very difficult and it proved to be so. Doubles are a very special event which is not easy to play. There were many ups and downs and in the end we prevailed by just one point. The singles showed a very high technical level in the crucial moments we managed to play a little better but there was nothing for granted. Comparing all the four Italian Cups we won I put in the first place the last one but also the first in 2018 the year when the event was reorganized for the first time. All the players deserve a great applause for having contributed to this result. I am sorry that Lubomir PISTEJ wasn’t here today because he was injured. I am sure that if he had been with us he would have been decisive throughout the match”. FINALS APUANIA CARRARA – TOP SPIN MESSINA WATCHES TOGETHER 3-1 Mihai BOBOCOCA/Tomislav PUCAR – Matteo MUTTI/Joäo MONTEIRO 3-2 (17-15 5-11 11-8 11-13 6-5) Andrej GACINA – Leonardo MUTTI 3-0 (11-7 11-5 11-4) Mihai BOBOCICA – Matteo MUTTI 1-3 (4-11 11-6 6-11 5-11) Tomislav PUCAR – Leonardo MUTTI 3-0 (11-7 11-5 11-9) TENNISTAVOLO NORBELLO – TENNISTAVOLO GENOVA CERVINO 3-2 Marco CAPPUCCIO/Sergei MOKROPOLOV – Tommaso GIOVANNETTI/Enrico PUPPO 1-3 (5-11 11-4 9-11 7-11) Gaston ALTO – Matteo GUALDI 3-0 (11-6 11-3 11-7) Marco CAPPUCCIO – Tommaso GIOVANNETTI 1-3 (11-6 11-13 5-11 8-11) Gaston ALTO – Enrico PUPPO 3-0 (11-8 11-1 11-6) Sergei MOKROPOLOV – Matteo GUALDI 3-0 (11-8 12-10 11-9) SEMIFINALS APUANIA CARRARA – TENNISTAVOLO GENOVA CERVINO 3-0 Mihai BOBOCICA/Tomislav PUCAR – Tommaso GIOVANNETTI/Matteo GUALDI 3-0 (11-6 11-5 11-6) Andrea PUPPO – Enrico PUPPO 3-1 (11-8 10-12 11-7 11-5) Mihai BOBOCICA – Tommaso GIOVANNETTI 3-0 (11-1 12-10 11-7) TOP SPIN MESSINA WATCHES TOGETHER – TENNISTAVOLO NORBELLO 3-0 Matteo MUTTI/João MONTEIRO – Marco CAPPUCCIO/Gaston ALTO 3-1 (11-8 9-11 11-4 11-9) Leonardo MUTTI – Sergei MOKROPOLOV 3-0 (11-9 11-5 11-7) João MONTEIRO – Gaston ALTO 3-0 (11-2 11-6 11-5)
Luxembourg unbeaten in Group A4
In Austria Luxembourg recorded another win in the Stage one of the European Championships. Unbeaten after three rounds Women’s team of Luxembourg overcame Austria in four matches. Sarah DE NUTTE beat Karoline MISCHEK (11:8 11:5 11:8) to give guests good start. NI Xia Lian overcame Amelie SOLJA in another straight games match (11:7 13:11 11:6). Ni also overcame MISCHEK (11:3 11:6 11:6). The only point for hosts was scored by Anastasiya STERNER who overcame Tessy GONDERINGER (11:7 12:14 11:5 11:6). The last match in the Group Luxembourg will play against Serbia. Both Serbia and Austria have one win each.
