Borussia Düsseldorf meets 1. FC Saarbrücken TT in the Ballsporthalle Frankfurt on Saturday in the LIEBHERR TTBL final. Players from the record-holding club have set their sights on the 32nd German championship in the club’s history Timo BOLL (41) talked about the showdown in TTBL their challenger Saarbrücken and the farewell to Kristian KARLSSON. In table tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) and Cup Borussia Düsseldorf and 1. FC Saarbrücken TT meets for the third time in a row in a final. What makes the two teams so strong at the moment? “It is the high individual strength of all players. In addition the team spirit is right in both teams ” said BOLL. In the Liebherr Cup final in January BOLL could only watch the 3-1 draw against Saarbrücken due to injury. “I had hoped and also believed that my team would make it anyway. But Saarbrücken had a great day and deserved to win. In the end what counts is the form of the teams on the day with or without Timo BOLL.” Düsseldorf has only lost three of 33 games in all competitions so far – two of them against Saarbrücken. Is that a bad omen or a special incentive for the team? “The games against Saarbrücken are very motivating. You can feel in the preparation that everyone is a bit tenser; everyone is working hard on themselves because we need the best possible performance against them. We definitely feel the pressure they put on us. Not every team can do that. However we now have a very balanced team and very strong different doubles variants. This may be a tiny advantage but we cannot rely on it.” For Kristian KARLSSON the Liebherr TTBL final will be Borussia’s last game for the time being. After six years in Düsseldorf he is moving to Hennebont. What advice will you give him and how difficult will the loss be for the team? “It will definitely be a difficult farewell for both sides. Kristian enjoyed playing in Düsseldorf and we and especially I value him as a great teammate but above all as a wonderful person. We will miss him. I hope we can celebrate his departure with the title in the bag.”    

1. FC Saarbrücken TT has its sights set on the first double trophy in the club’s history: In the final of the Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) the Cup winner will meet Borussia Düsseldorf in the Ballsporthalle Frankfurt on June 11. Six top 20 players in the World rankings will be present on both clubs line ups. One of them will be Patrick FRANZISKA (29) who answered few questions about Saarbrücken’s strengths title prospects in the Liebherr TTBL final and further plans for his 30th birthday. Borussia Düsseldorf has won 30 games out of 33 in all competitions this season. How does it make you feel? “ Positive! After all they suffered two of the defeats against us. That can be repeated” said FRANZISKA. In the Bundesliga (TTBL) and Cup Borussia Düsseldorf and 1. FC Saarbrücken TT meets in a cross-competition final for the third time in a row. “Both clubs have a very high quality teams and also the team around them. In addition the consistency and the good team spirit are impressive on both sides. But the successes would not be possible without the hard work that is done by both Düsseldorf and Saarbrücken.” FCS won the Liebherr Cup final in January 3-1. Please give us three reasons why Saarbrücken could win again on June 11 and creates the first double in the club’s history… “The double we’re dying to win is reason one. The very good shape we showed in the semifinals next. And then of course that I want to celebrate my birthday for two reasons. I’m planning to drink the sparkling wine from the Cup… There will also be a small celebration with close friends and family.” What do you think will be the deciding factor in the Liebherr TTBL final? “The shape on the day will be decisive for these two strong teams – and ultimately also the doubles which is why the line-up is of great importance.” FRANZISKA have been playing for Saarbrücken since 2016; in the Liebherr TTBL final with FCS for the fourth time in a row and recently extended your contract until 2025. With Cedric NUYTINCK and Jin TAKUYA Saarbrücken has signed two more top players for the coming season. “We’ve already done a few training sessions together which showed me that we can achieve a lot. Both are real fighters and therefore fit very well into our team.”    

Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki clinched the title in Polish Championships. The team from Mazovia defeated Bydgoszcz 3:1 in the LOTTO Superliga Grand Final in its own hall. The Grand Final started better for the winner of the LOTTO Superliga main round. Bydgoszcz thanks to Artur GRELA who has recently been at high disposal took the lead 1-0. Current Polish Youth Champion in first match defeated in three games Marek BADOWSKI who is the idol of the local audience. The defeat of BADOWSKI mobilized the Dartom Bogoria players who dominated the Bydgoszcz team in subsequent games. First SHIYU Sun beat Viacheslav BUROV 3-1 and then Pavel SIRUCEK won against Vladislav URSU 3-0. The triumph of the locals was sealed by the one who started the final battle. Marek BADOWSKI defeated Viacheslav BUROV 2-0 in the fourth match of the day. Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki for the sixth time in history won the LOTTO Superliga and for the eighth time they won the gold medal in the Polish Team Championship. The silver medal of LOTTO Polski Cukier Gwiazda Bydgoszcz is the best result in the history of the club.   Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki – Lotto Polski Cukier Star Bydgoszcz 3: 1 Marek Badowski – Artur Grela 0: 3 (8:11 7:11 8:11) Shiyu Sun – Viacheslav Burov 3: 1 (8:11 11: 8 11: 8 11: 7) Pavel Sirucek – Vladislav Ursu 3: 0 (11: 5 13:11 11: 9) Marek Badowski – Viacheslav Burov 2: 0 (11:5 16:14)

Olympiacos clinched the title in the A1 Men national League in Greece for the 2021-2022 season. In the exciting final of the playoffs against Panathinaikos on the afternoon of Thursday 26/05 at the Peace and Friendship Stadium Olympiacos prevailed 3-1 took the trophy again after 2018 and made the double after the Greek Cup. In the fantastic performance in the finish of the season which was enjoyed by 150 fans up close and thousands from the computers Olympiacos recorded the victory and won the 15th men’s championship in its history. Olympiacos had a key player Ioannis SGOUROPOULOS who prevailed in both of his individual games and got another victory from the Croatian Tomislav PUCAR. In the big “battle” of the two leading Greek clubs in the match with the highest level of competition which has ever appeared in the Greek A1 Panathinaikos was a great opponent and worthy adversary led the Croatian Andrei GACINA. The match was broadcast live from the HTTF channel on youtube at the link https://youtu.be/uqbKrHSCn1s. The 3rd place was won by AS Pera Athinon which with an overall good performance defeated 3-1 OEA Rethymno which lined up without foreign athletes in the playoffs. The match was broadcast live on the link https://youtu.be/NUM_4VZNVYY. Olympiakos and Panathinaikos “clashed” again in a decisive title match after many years while after 2011 it was the second time that the championship was judged in the playoffs! The match was eagerly awaited by all the Greek fans and the top European athletes of the two teams together with 4 times European champion of the youth categories SGOUROPOULOS completely justified the huge interest. It was not only the top names of the two teams and the great importance of the match but also the fact that they appeared a roster… Champions League with athletes who have medals in European championships. Think that the Portuguese Joao MONTEIRO three times European champion in men was on the bench of Olympiacos! There were fluctuations and agony from beginning to end and the title was judged in detail after 2.5 hours. SGOUROPOULOS was used to the playoffs (after the completion of his games in the Bundesliga he had the right to play in the Greek Cup) and was placed 1st player by his coach George Christoforakis. He defeated two world-class athletes the Polish DYJAS and the Croatian GACINA the second one with a reversal of 1-2 making the final 3-1 for Piraeus. In another crucial point of the match the Cuban Kampos took the 1st set against PUCAR but the Croatian increased his performance and prevailing with 3-1 gave his team the lead again after the draw of Gacina (3-1 set by Shibaev). It should be noted that GACINA and DYJAS played in the playoffs for the only time this year in the championship. The final Olympiacos-Panathinaikos 3-1: Ioannis Sgouropoulos-Jakob Dyjas 3-0 (11-9 11-8 11-8) Aleksandr Shibaev-Andrej Gacina 1-3 (11-4 7-11 5-11 8-11) Tomislav Pucar-Jorge Campos 3-1 (8-11 11-6 11-6 11-8) Sgouropoulos-Gacina 3-2 (9-11 13-11 10-12 11-8 11-9) In the group stage Olympiacos also relied on Tassos RINIOTIS the Portuguese Enio MENDES Socrates GIANNOUTSOS and Alkiviadis STAMATOUROS. Similarly Panathinaikos which had Lefteris MAKRAS in the technical guidance used in the first phase of the championship in addition to KAMPOS Konstantinos KONSTANTINOPOULOS Jason KORDOUTIS the Bulgarian Petio KRASTEV and the French Lorent COVA. Today on the bench was also George KONSTANTINOPOULOS who was available having completed his games in the Polish league. The 3rd place was won by AS Pera Athinon. In the match for the bronze medal Rethymno prevailed with 3-1 after two victories of Pantasak Tanviriyavetsakul from Thailand and one of Stratos Damianis. Pera had Michalis Vakrakos as the 4th player Rethymno as Spyros Kioufis but there was no change in the three. The match AS Pera Athens-OEA Rethymno 3-1 : Pantasak Tanvirigiavetsakoul-Pantelis Vogiatzidakis 3-0 (11-2 11-2 11-4) Dimitris Kordoutis-Nikos Antoniadis 1-3 (8-11 11-9 7-11 5-11) Stratos Damianis-Fanis Tsachakis 3-0 (11-5 11-1 11-2) Pantasak-Antoniadis 3-0 (14-12 13-11 11-9)   Olympiacos became the champion of Greece in women this year as well as men’s team. The championship was completed without playoffs at the end of January and the team of Piraeus won without defeat the 20th title in its history. After two rounds he collected 24 points. The 2nd place was taken by Panathinaikos with 22 and the 3rd by Sarises Florinas with 19. Olympiacos included Sweden’s Li Fen Christina Kallberg Ukraine’s Margarita Pesotska Spain’s Galia Dvorak Aliki Kioufi and Hungary’s Christina Ambrose. Giorgos Christoforakis is the coach of Olympiacos for another year.

The Kosovo Cup 2022 took place last weekend. Priping club clinched the title. Priping initially defeated the youth of the KPP club Ahmet Hoxha MK with a result of 3: 0 to advance to the quarterfinals. In the 1/8 of the final Priping met with KVPP Prizren who defeated them with a result of 3: 1 to advance to the semifinals. The semifinal was in a confrontation between the two clubs of the capital of Kosovo   KPP Priping and KPP Prishtina; it was a balanced match but in the end Priping scored a 3 to 1 victory to secure the ticket to the final. As expected the final was a strong game where Priping met the multiple champion of Kosovo from Prizren “Lidhja e Prizrenit”. Coach Kastriot Orana after the match said that they are very happy with this very important trophy and that the commitment and hard work is finally being rewarded. “We have been preparing for this match for a long time we had the camp with the coach Eli Baraty from London especially for this duel and with this trophy the commitment and tireless work of the players in the last weeks is being paid off. We are very happy for the Kosovo Cup and as a team this cup has motivated us even more for trophies in the future “said Orana. He further added that the next goal is to win the title of Kosovo Super League where they are currently in second place with one point away from the top of the table.  

Brunetti Castel Goffredo keeps on winning. The team trained by coach Alfonso LAGHEZZA clinched the 19th Italian title of their history the sixth in a row beating 4-1 in both the legs of the finals Polisportiva Bagnolese Panino LAB. In the first away match the defending champions started in the best way. Spain’s Maria XIAO defeated 3-0 Veronica MOSCONI and Romania’s Bernadette SZOCS prevailed 3-0 over defender and compatriot Alina ZAHARIA. Tian JING narrowed the gap leaving only one game to Nicole ARLIA but this was the only point of the local players. In the last two singles SZOCS and XIAO comeback against MOSCONI and JING allowing to Castel Goffredo to get over the line. In the second leg played at home SZOCS accounted for JING struggling a lot especially in the second game and ZAHARIA put Bagnolese back on track against MONFARDINI. Also the following three singles ended in straight games and all went in favor of the local team thanks to the double victory of XIAO over MOSCONI and JING and to the one of SZOCS forced by ZAHARIA to fight above all in the first game. “It was not easy” explains coach LAGHEZZA “as it was not in the first leg even if Bagnolese did not have the Russian Olga VOROBEVA. Our girls played very well and confirmed their status. We are very satisfied. We could count on two very competitive athletes as Bernadette SZOCS and Maria XIAO. They are also good friends and this aspect helped to create a good atmosphere within the group and to allow us to face difficult moments in the right way. It has been a long journey and we improved match after match. For young talents Gaia MONFARDINI and Nicole ARLIA this season was meant to be an opportunity to gain experience. On some occasions they played better on others worse. Time is on their side and from next season we will expect something more from them. Both had to learn so as not to repeat the same mistakes in the future’.   Second leg: Brunetti Castel Goffredo – Polisportiva Bagnolese Panino LAB 4-1 Bernadette SZOCS – Tian JING 3-0 (11-7 15-13 11-6) Gaia MONFARDINI – Alina ZAHARIA 0-3 (3-11 7-11 3-11) Maria XIAO – Veronica MOSCONI 3-0 (11-6 11-4 11-6) Bernadette SZOCS – Alina ZAHARIA 3-0 (19-17 11-7 11-5) Maria XIAO – Tian JING 3-0 (11-4 11-7 11-9) First leg: Polisportiva Bagnolese Panino LAB – Brunetti Castel Goffredo 1-4 Veronica MOSCONI – Maria XIAO 0-3 (3-11 7-11 8-11) Alina ZAHARIA – Bernadette SZOCS 0-3 (9-11 7-11 8-11) Tian JING – Nicole ARLIA 3-1 (11-5 11-6 9-11 11-6) Veronica MOSCONI – Bernadette SZOCS 2-3 (11-5 10-12 13-11 3-11 7-11) Tian JING – Maria XIAO 1-3 (11-4 7-11 7-11 6-11)