All – French semifinal clash in the Europe Cup men opening leg ended in favor of GV Hennebont TT. AS Pontoise Cergy TT lost their home match – 1:3. Ioannis SGOUROPOULOS beat Esteban DORR (11:4 13:11 11:6) to give his team dream start. “In my match I played really good and believe in myself. I was very confident in my game and I won. Now we are big step closer to the final and we will give our best to achieve it ” said SGOUROPOULOS. Kristian KARLSSON won two matches. He beat Emmanuel LEBESSON in five close games (9:11 17:15 6:11 11:5 6:4) and DORR (11:3 10:12 11:6 13:11). Tristan FLORE prevailed in the match against Anders LIND (11:2 11:0 11:0).
Champions in winning mode
Reigning champions of the Champions league Women Poland’s KTS Enea Siarkopol Tarnobrzeg beat UCAM Cartagena TM in the opening leg of the semifinal. In Spain hosts failed to produce any advantage and lost in straight matches. YANG Xiaoxin opened the match with the victory over Maria XIAO (11:3 11:5 11:8) YU Fu continued the winning row by beating Silvia ERDELYI (5:11 13:11 11:5 12:10). Elizabeta SAMARA was stretched to full distance but at the end in furious finish she beat Dora MADARASZ (11:9 4:11 11:8 6:11 6:2). The return leg is scheduled for 23rd February.
Tomislav PUCAR: I am happy to play in Montreux
This year Croatia’s Tomislav PUCAR will play at the China Construction Bank Europe Top 16 Cup for a fourth time. In Montreux on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th February PUCAR hopes to come close to his best resultat achieved at the same place in 2020 when he was fourth. For the most of the players in Switzerland the last tournament before CCB Europe Top 16 Cup was the WTT Contender Amman. In the opening round of the singles PUCAR lost to the top seeded player Darko JORGIC of Slovenia. “Darko and I knows each other from the childhood. We are very good friends and during all these years we trained together so many times. In addition we played against each other many times and we are very familiar with the each other’s performance . In recent duels he beat me many times but few times I came close. I hope the next clash will end in my favor ” said PUCAR. JORGIC is no. two seed in Montreux. PUCAR continued to praise his game. “It is no coincidence that he is defending the title in Montreux. He is still main favorite for the title this year. “ What about your shape are you ready for Montreux? “I am little bit sick now but I hope I will get well for Montreux. I came home from Jordan and now I will give myself few days for rest and then I will start to build my shape for Switzerland. Top 16 Cup is one of the most important tournaments in the calendar every season and I want to be ready for the challenge.” The challenge is great for sure. The list of players is equally impressive as always. Top seed is Truls MOREGARD followed by JORGIC Dang QIU and Dimitrij OVTCHAROV of Germany Kristian KARLSSON of Sweden Liam PITCHFORD of England Andrej GACINA of Croatia Simon GAUZY of France Marcos FREITAS of Portugal WANG Yang of Slovakia Robert GARDOS of Austria Jonathan GROTH of Denmark Joao GERALDO of Portugal Elias HARDMEIER of Switzerland and Emmanuel LEBESSON of France. “As I said already JORGIC is top favorite but it is hard to predict the medal rostrum. I think we will have open tournament until the end with lot of close and thrilling games ” stated PUCAR. Speaking of his best moment at the tournament PUCAR underlined year of 2020. “This is my fourth appearance and so far the best moment was when I reached the semifinals on my premiere at Top 16. This year I wish to stay healthy and to be able to play at my best level. By doing so I am sure that the good result will come. I am very happy that I have a chance to play at such prestige tournament.”
ETTU and DTTB productive meeting in Frankfurt
The European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) and the German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) yesterday held a productive meeting at the DTTB headquarters in Frankfurt. The meeting was attended by high-ranking representatives from both organizations who discussed a range of important topics affecting the future of table tennis in Europe. Acting ETTU President Pedro MOURA Secretary General Pierre KASS and Deputy Secretary General Galia DVORAK represented the ETTU at the meeting. On the DTTB side President Claudia HERWEG Secretary General Matthias VATHEUER and Sports Director Richard PRAUSE were in attendance. The representatives discussed the current state of the continental strategy and the challenges that European Member Associations are facing. They also talked about the future of events and Club Competitions in Europe and how both parties can work together to support and promote the sport in Europe. “We are very grateful for the opportunity to meet with our colleagues from the DTTB and discuss the future of Table Tennis in Europe ” said ETTU Acting President Pedro Moura. “It was a productive meeting and I am confident that this was a good step for collaboration to promote the sport in our continent.” DTTB President Claudia Herweg stated:„It was a positive start to discuss the situation of table tennis in Europe for a better future!“
Barbora BALAZOVA: Love the atmosphere in Montreux
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.
