First time after 2010 Germany secured the medal in the Women’s Team at the 2022 ITTF World team Championships Finals in Chengdu. In the quarterfinal they beat Hong Kong in five grueling matches. Germany managed to recover after being two games to null in reverse. HAN Ying and Nina MITTELHAM lost their opening matches before SHAN Xiaona changed the course of the match. In the fourth encounter HAN Ying overcame ZHU Chengzhu 3-0. “We are through to the semifinal and we are so amazed and happy. I was a little bit angry about the result in Tokyo Olympic Games so when I saw the draw in group 16 I know I got the second chance to beat the team. It really helps me to have a chance to play against team Hong Kong again. But in the first game I was too nervous. The first match is the hardest match for me and I need time to play loosely so I lost the first duel in this championships. In my second match today I tried to remember how I can play well and it worked ” said HAN Ying. SHAN Xiaona overcame LEE Ho Ching 3-1: “I went into the box at 0-2 and I believed the whole team and trusted myself that I could win the match. I stood with a little bit pressure but I did well. This is my first World Championships maybe also it would be the last one. Thus I just wanted to give everything I could and I did it.” In the decisive match Nina MITTELHAM succeeded against SOO Wai Yam Minnie. “The first match was not my match. I did not find my rhythm so I made many easy mistakes and ZHU Chengzhu played well. In the second match I just tried to play my games and didn’t give further chances to play what she wanted to play and it worked better. I changed my serve a little bit that I was playing better in the rallies. I didn’t take so many risks and I was just waiting for my chances then I tried to use it. At the end I won and I’m happy.” Portugal created upset by beating Slovenia 3-0 in the Men’s Team Round of 16. It is the third time after 2014 and 2016 that the team reaches the quarterfinal. The hero of the match was Joao GERALDO currently ranked at the position no. 84. In five games he beat World’s no. 8 Darko JORGIC. In previous six days JORGIC did not lose any game against anyone but China. “Today I think it was a great match for us and the three players with high level of table tennis. In the group stage we defeated the team of Brazil which is a really good result. Now we are fully focused on next match with Japanese team “said GERALDO. “I played with Darko before it was a really close match although I lost that one but I knew I could have the possibility to win. Today I had a really good moment after I lost the second game. It was disappointing for me. But somehow I found myself. I’m really happy that I won. I showed a good level and I’m happy with my overall performance in the tournament. So I will try to keep up for tomorrow.” JORGIC said:”I came back from 1-0 in my match with GERALDO. I changed tactics a little bit but I knew from the beginning that he is a really aggressive and amazing player since we played many times before a few months ago. At that time I was also coming back from 0-2 against him. I knew it would be a tough match from the beginning but he started to play really well in the end. I was too passive on some shots but I need to congratulate them. They gave an amazing performance. This is our history for Slovenia already and this was our key to being the second place in the group to reach this round of 16. We are happy and I think everybody from Slovenia is happy.” Joao MONTEIRO beat Peter HRIBAR 3-0: “Japan is one of the best teams in the world. So we know that the match against them will be very hard but we are going to play well. We will keep fighting as we did until now and try to win to against team Japan and to get the medal in the championships.” Sweden defeated Belgium 3-0 in straight matches. Only at the beginning Sweden was under pressure. Truls MOREGARD was forced to go full distance against Martin ALLEGRO. “It was a very tough match. I’ve never played with him before. I didn’t know so much about serving and receiving about how I would play and how he would play. He was playing really well especially in the serve ” said Truls. Mattias FALCK needed one game less to beat Cedric NUYTINCK: “It was really fun playing in knockout stage. Here we are aiming for the medals. It was a little bit more fun to play these matches. I’m looking forward to playing in the next round.” Anton KALLBERG overcame Adrien RASSENFOSSE in straight games: “Personally I think today was my best match so it’s getting better and better. I think if we want to play with team China in the next stage we have to step up again to the very high level that we had never have.” Next in line is China. “We will prepare this as we prepare against every team. We’ll look at what their strengths are and we will try to find some weaknesses. We’ll do our absolute best and keep up a good fight ” added Kristian KARLSSON. Germany also progressed to the quarterfinal. They overcame Croatia in straight matches. In the opening match Benedikt DUDA beat Andrej GACINA. “I think that playing with GACINA is always a tough match. He was playing very well. And I know

In the backstage of the fierce fights at the 2022 ITTF World Team Championships Finals Chengdu is also the place for vivid diplomacy activities. ETTU Acting President Pedro MOURA is in China engaged in numerous meeting having prosperity of the Continent’s table tennis set on his mind. It was not long after the World Table Tennis today announced the appointment of LIU Guoliang as Chairman of WTT Board and ITTF announced the LIU’s appointment as ITTF Deputy President that another meeting took place. “Since I’ve landed in Chengdu ten days ago I’ve been engaged in several meetings with ITTF Executive Committee members and Senior staff in order to discuss matters of our sport. Today and for the second time I had the chance to meet newly appointed ITTF Deputy president Mr. LIU Guoliang. While I was delighted with the opportunity it turned to be another unique moment for me to explain European table tennis structure to share ideas and plans for the future and to find a common ground that will enable our loved sport to grow in Europe ” stated Acing President MOURA. An extremely well-respected leader within the table tennis community LIU Guoliang before today’s appointed was elected President of the Chinese Table Tennis Association in 2018 and to the ITTF Executive Committee in 2021. As a player and head coach of the Chinese men’s team LIU Guoliang has won all the major titles. “Of course the perspectives differ from different positions but the dream to further elevate our sport is shared. I will devote more time and energy to promoting and advancing table tennis as well as fostering global cooperation.”

Ranked only at the position no. 30 at the World Rankings Slovakia reached the quarterfinal of the Women’s Event at the 2022 ITTF World Team Championships Finals in Chengdu. Team of Portugal and Men’s team France joined Slovakia in next stage. In the opening match in knock out phase on the six day of play in China Slovakia overcame France. Barbora BALAZOVA lost to Prithika PAVADE but prevailed in the fourth duel against YUAN Jia Nan “To be honest before the match we were planning to give our best as we did. If someone told us that we will be in quarter finals before the whole competition we will laugh obviously. It’s huge for us like we make the history for our country and we are happy ” said BALAZOVA. Two teams have a history of encounters. “Actually we played against France in every Championships. Four years ago we played twice against them once we won and once we lost. Plus in the European qualifications we have them also in the group. Basically we will not to surprise when we saw the draw. On our minds they were favorites but we did not want to go without the good fight. I lost my opening match very close then Ema LOBOSOVA stepped up and won her match against YUAN and then Tatiana KUKULKOVA turned the course of the match…” Against YUAN BALAZOVA had match point in third game. “At 10:6 I realized how close I am. I got “stiffed” and I lost that game. In next one I was game ball down at 9:10 but I prevailed ” said BALAZOVA. Germany needed also four matches to halt the progress of Puerto Rico. HAN Ying remains undefeated in the event and also is yet to drop a single game. “I think Puerto Rico Women’s team is very good they are young and they fight. They played till the last moment which is really good match to watch ” said HAN. Hong Kong is through to the quarterfinals of the Women’s Teams after defeating Romania in a thrilling 3-2 encounter. Team Singapore defeated Czech Republic 3-1. France eliminated 2016 bronze medalists England for a spot in the Men’s Team quarterfinals. In previous occasions at the World Championships in Kuala Lumpur and at the Olympic Games in Rio it was England who celebrated. World No.22 Liam PITCHFORD beat both Alexis and Felix LEBRUN but Jules ROLAND and Alexis and Felix still managed to score against Sam WALKER and David MCBATH. Jules ROLLAND overcame David MCBEATH 3-2: ” We’re very happy here and we want to go very far it’s not the finish yet. “ Team Portugal defeated Luxembourg 3-1 in the Women’s Team Round of 16. YU Fu gave Portugal dream start with the victory over NI Xia Lian 3-1. “NI Xia Lian sometimes plays with long rubber and sometimes she plays with short rubber. So it made me we feel kind of strange because of the pace or spin. If you don’t practice in this kind of way you might feel very strange. But I played with her few times before so today was very confident ” said YU Fu. Then SHAO Jieni overcame Sarah DE NUTTE 3-1. “I would like to congratulate our whole team. We predicted that we’re going to face some difficulties to play with Luxembourg and we’re fully prepared with the difficulties that we may face. I would like to say that we showed our nice shape and played well ” said Jieni. Next in line is China. “Chinese team is the NO.1 in the world we just want to play our best but we don’t know what will happen in the next stage “said Ines MATOS.

The end of the stage phase at the 2022 ITTF World Team Championships Finals in Chengdu launched Europe as a most successful Continent with more than 50 percent of listed teams coming from Europe. In men’s teams there are nine selection of Europeans in Round of 16: Belgium Sweden Portugal Slovenia Poland Croatia Germany England and France. In women’s event half of the contestants are from Europe: Hungary Portugal Luxembourg Czech Republic Romania Germany Slovakia and France. In addition good news is that most of the European teams has very rejuvenated line up. France count on LEBRUN brothers 19-years old Alexis and 16-years old Felix. Not to mention 18-years old Prithika PAVADE who already reached the Olympic Games stage. Germany men are not juniors but DTTB decided to give a chance to team without BOLL OVTCHAROV and FRANZISKA with QIU Dang as a leader. Sweden is led by already established World’s no 6 20 years old Truls MOREGARDH. Poland made her way to the Round of 16 with the players who less than a month played at the Europe Under 21 Championships – gold medal winner Samuel KULCZYCKI and bronze medalists Milosz REDZIMSKI. In team of Portugal beside established SHAO Jieni and YU Fu is 18 years old Matos INES.  

On Tuesday 4th October as the main draw was conducted for the 2022 ITTF World Team Championships Finals Chengdu presented by China Telecom eyes focused very much on the teams who in that period of time have risen in status. In the men’s event Slovenia who finished in second place in their men’s team group behind China face Portugal in the opening round; for Slovenia Darko JORGIC winner of the Europe Top 16 Cup earlier in the year may well prove pivotal in a fixture too close to call. “I’m really happy with our performance here. We lost only against China; this is normal. We gave everything we could they were just much better than us” said JORGIC. “In other matches we were favourites. We gave it all from the beginning till the end. I’m really happy with our performance here and I’m really happy that we qualified in the round 16 for the first time.” Play the opening round of both the men’s and women’s events commences on Wednesday 5th October.

From tomorrow at the 2022 ITTF World Team Championships Finals in Chengdu the best 16 teams in each category in Men’s and Women’s Event will take stage in China. In men’s event at the top of the Group 1 is China followed by Slovenia. Slovenia lost only to China. In Group 2 after straight matches win over India today France reached the top of the Group followed by Germany. All three teams has 7 points. In the opening match Alexis LEBRUN overcame Manav Vikash THAKKAR: “We changed the position and today Jules played amazingly so we are happy to be 3-0. All four players are very focused on the competition. I think this way works and it’s perfect.” Japan and Hong Kong topping the Group 3 and in Group 4 it is Korea and Egypt. In Group 5 Sweden is unbeaten Poland is second and England and Australia failed to reach next phase. Portugal and Brazil goes up from group 6 and Croatia and Belgium from Group 7. In Women’s Event in first Group China and Puerto Rico will progress to the next phase from the top spot at the standings. Japan and Slovakia are the best teams in Group 2 whilst in Group 3 Hong Kong and France moved forward. In the last round in the Group Stage France beat Brazil in thrilling five matches to book the second position in the Group. Hong Kong is at the top of the Group. Prithika PAVADE overcame both Giulia and Bruna TAKAHASHI. “It was a tough match again with Bruna thanks for the timeout in the second time. I just tried to run and play. The point was close but I got it ” said PAVADE Pauline CHASSELIN also overcame Giulia in the decisive match. “In my match with Giulia it was a lot of pressure. But I had to fight and to play my best and to be aggressive. Giulia was really good at serving ” said CHASSELIN. At the top of the Group 4 is Luxembourg. They lost only the duel against Singapore and beat Korea Thailand and Iran. Singapore is at the position no. one. Germany is without defeat at the top of the Group 5. India is one position below. In Group 6 Taipei and Portugal proceeded to the knock out phase.

The Group stage at the 2022 ITTF World Championships Finals in Chengdu reached Round 3 on the fourth day of the play in China. European champion Romania failed to find the way to halt the progress of Portugal in five close games in Women’s Teams Event. Portugal reached the Round of 16. In Women’s Teams Group 6 YU Fu was the backbone of Portugal’s success with two wins over Bernadette SZOCS and Elizabeta SAMARA. However the foundation to the victory was set by SHAO Jieni in the opening match against SAMARA. Elizabeta had a match point but failed to capitalize on the situation (11-13 11-6 11-4 9-11 13-11). YU Fu widens the gap with the win over SZOCS. Adina DIACONU beat Ines MATOS and SZOCS overcame SHAO Jieni (6-11 12-10 7-11 11-8 11-5) before YU sealed the match with the victory over SAMARA. “We were under severe pressure because this was the match for the next stage. We passed the Group and now everything is easier. My teammates handle the pressure very well. It was amazing match to watch ” said Ines. Taipei lost to Sweden but they retained their leading position in the Group. Romania is third and Sweden is fourth. Germany beat Czech Republic 3-0 and concluded the Group stage at the top of the Group 5. “No match is easy. So we had to fight for every ball for every match. Now we had achieved our goal that to be the first in the group. That’s great. Now we are in the knock-out stage and we will continue ” said Nina MITTELHAM who overcame Hana MATELOVA.”I think our goal now would depend on the draw. I think our dream has come true as we are here. It will be fine even if we go back home in the next stage. “ France defeated Italy 3-0 in Group 3. Italy has 5 points and they concluded Group stage with two wins and two defeats. France has one point less and one match less. The leader is Hong Kong with three wins out of three matches. Pauline CHASSELIN overcame Debora VIVARELLI in the third match: “I think the key to win is to keep fighting for every point. But it was a really difficult match because each game was very close. We tried to focus on the tactics. And the most important thing is to keep focus and fight every point.” In the Men’s Event in Group 7 Croatia and Belgium fought for the top spot at the standings in Group of four. Despite the dream start and Cedric NUYTINCK’s win over Andrej GACINA 11-9 in the deciding game in the opening match the pendulum swung to the other side immediately from the second match. Zeljko FILIP won both his encounters and Tomislav PUCAR added third point to the scoreboard.  “We discussed about the strategy yesterday. After the match against Chinese Taipei the coach decided to put me and Tomislav one and two Filip number three. But in the morning when he woke up he changed his mind. It was Filip to play as number one. And this was a really good decision and he was playing really well today and won both his matches. We all did our best and luckily we managed to win ” said GACINA.” I think it doesn’t mean a lot for finishing first in the group. Actually because there are some really strong teams that lost in the group stage already. So there are some teams can come to us also in the last 16 teams. So we are happy that we are from our winning street but now in my mind is just to relax take our time and see the point to be.” Team Germany defeated France 3-1 with QIU Dang beating Felix LEBRUN in the opening match. “It was my first time to play against Felix and it’s not often that two penhold grips playing against each other. For me I was quite focused. I prepared myself well against him because I know he had very good previous results. And I think I went technically and mentally very strong to the game. I’m happy to get that win at the end ” said Qiu Dang. Duda BENEDIKT lost to Alexis LEBRUN: “It’s a very important match for us tomorrow we’ll play against Uzbekistan. We want to win. We have to win this match. At the end we will see the matches between France against India tomorrow. Thus we will see at which position we will finish with us.” LEBRUN Alexis:”I think they played amazing and Kay STUMPER made a very good match against Emmanuel. We can play better but they play well. It was very difficult today. I don’t think the penhold grip is an advantage because there were so many differences. Today it was very hard for me because I played very bad in this match. I think he’s a very good player in different style than Felix. We will take time to forget this match and think about tomorrow. We will continue to try to attain the first or second place of the group.” Belgium secured second position. “Being in the last 16 teams is not bad but it’s always better to win the group and then we will have another chance in the next stage. Now it would be tougher but it’s okay. There are some surprises in other groups for the last 16’s draw if we don’t take China we’ll be happy. Sweden is also a strong team; they are very good players and they’re very dangerous ” said Cedric NUYTINCK.

Team Croatia has created top rated upset by beating Chinese Taipei in Men’s Teams Group 7 at the 2022 ITTF World Team Championships Finals in Chengdu. The back-bone of Croatia’s success was Andrej GACINA with two wins over PENG Wang-Wei and LIAO Cheng-Ting whilst Filip ZELJKO beat HUANG Yan-Cheng. “The result shows things went smoothly but actually it was a tough match. They could have won. So we are happy that we managed to win. I think we all played well. We managed to win the match and we are happy about that. We need to take a rest try to recover as fast as possible. Because we have the match against Belgium tomorrow morning and the winner will win the number one position in this group ” said ZELJKO. After victory over Taipei Belgium overcame Singapore today. Martin ALLEGRO Cedric NUYTINCK and Adrien RASSENFOSSE recorded straight matches win over PANG Yew En Koen CHEW Zhe Yu Clarence and QUEK Izaac. Portugal also recorded second victory; after Slovakia it was Brazil who suffered by the hands of Marcos FREITAS Joao MONTEIRO and Joao GERALDO. Hugo CALDRANO won his both encounters on the other side. GERALDO played the decisive match against Eric JOUTI. “We are happy with having a good experience we hope to keep the good shape. We were used to this kind of long match in the past. Basically we’re happy that in the end we could manage the match. Denmark’s team is a good team they made a lot of troubles to Brazil. We’ll have a rest now and start to prepare for the matches tomorrow ” said GERALDO. Germany suffered defeat by the hands of India’s players “I think they played well over the last few years and put themselves at many different international stages. For us we give everything today. The match was very close and I think we could do better in one or two matches. For example my 4th match was leading 2-0 at first we could win this match and maybe we would win overall. But the India always believe themselves they deserve to win at the end ” explained QIU Dang. In the Women’s Event Germany beat Egypt in straight matches. “I’m really happy. We did it that’s great. I did not feel so much pressure we were leading two-zero. In my first game I missed some easy balls it was a pity. But the most important thing is that in the end I won the serve and I was also leading all the time in the second game. I got the chance to come back I managed to win the game at the end ” said Nina MITTELHAM. Italy also recorded another victory. South Africa’s Danisha PATEL Lailaa EDWARDS and Zodwa MAPHANGA suffered by the hands of Debora VIVARELLI Giorgia PICCOLIN and Nicole ARLIA “We prepared quite well for the match today and yesterday against Brazil. With this victory we found it quite good. And we are happy about this match. Now we are thinking about the match with France tomorrow. I think this is the most important match. We know them a little bit since we played against them before. We know that they have a good number one. But we have nothing to lose so we want to be prepared ” said PICCOLIN. Team Luxembourg added another victory to their scoreboard. After win over Korea and defeat against Singapore they beat Iran in the third round. “So far so good I’m happy. Every player is professional. They are very good. For me every match is very serious and not easy. I still have to prepare well and fight very hard. I must sleep well. I have my own problem but I think I’m happy with my result. And in the future the game will be tough ” said NI Xia Lian. Sarah DE NUTTE beats Neda SHAHSAVARI: “I’m happy to win my first single game. I had some troubles to get into the tournament. I was sick before coming here. I didn’t practice so much and now I think it’s good to win one match to get some confidence. Hopefully I can play better in the next matches.” Tessy GONDERINGER succeeded against Shima SAFAEI after five games: “For me it was a very tough game. All the games are very close and I needed to fight every ball to continue. I’m very happy to win the game. Today my condition was good but for me playing with Thailand will be difficult.”