ETTU will kick off 2021 with a wonderful record – ETTU 2021 Development Webinar will bring together almost 150 participants from 40 Associations . There are some well known former players on the register too for today’s event. The topic of the webinar is “How and in what way to keep the focus on the player’s performance (not on the result)?” In the Project Management Team are: Prof. ETTU Development Manager Neven CEGNAR ETTU Development Webinar Officer Samet POLAT. The lecturers are Amir ZULIC – working on psychological preparation of athletes since 1994. – worked with more than 700 athletes in more than 40 sports – more than 60 medals from WC EC and OG – in table tennis: worked with Tamara Boroš Zoran Primorac Andrej Gaćina for several years. – teaching sport psychology at the Football Academy of the Croatian Football Federation since 2004. – having fun working with athletes and coaches Ivana SADAIC working on psychological preparation of athletes since 2016. – worked with athletes in individual (kick-boxing tennis) and team sports (handball football) – working as associate in the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Zagreb – coordinating a Team for psychological crisis intervention – always dreamed to be sport psychologist ETTU Development Webinar – Session Time According to Countries’ Local Time 10:00 England Faroe Islands Ireland Portugal Scotland Wales 11:00 11:00 11:00 11:00 Andorra Austria Belgium Bosnia – Herzegovina Croatia Czech Republic Spain France Hungary Italy Luxembourg N. Macedonia Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Slovenia Serbia Slovakia Sweden 12:00 12:00 Cyprus Estonia Finland Israel Latvia Lithuania Moldovia Romania Ukraine 13:00 Belarus Turkey Russia 14:00 Azerbaijan
European Olympic Singles Qualification has been postponed to April
The ETTU Executive Board has decided to postpone the European Olympic Singles Qualification tournament scheduled for 10th to 14th February 2021 and to reschedule for the following new date: Wednesday 21st to Sunday 25th April 2021. The venue remains at the municipality of Odivelas Lisbon Portugal. The Executive Board took into consideration the confirmation from ITTF that Continental Qualification tournaments may be completed before 30th April 2021 the continuing Covid situation across Europe and the requests from member Associations to play at a later date.
European Team Championships Stage 1 matches in A group cancelled
The Executive Board under the leadership of President Igor LEVITIN has considered the impact of the unstable Covid-19 situation across Europe on the planning of the European Team Championships Stage 1 groups and has received feedback from many member Associations in recent days. Associations have mentioned the travel restrictions the lockdown restrictions and the difficulty to organise sufficient practice in advance of matches. The Executive Board has agreed the following: * to postpone C groups due to be played on 23rd and 24th January to a later date in April or May; * to postpone B groups to a later date possibly in late May; * to cancel the A groups; * subject to Congress approval to qualify the best 12 A group teams (according to the 2019 European Team Championships results) to the Final Stage at Cluj Napoca; * to permit the remaining 6 A group teams to play in Stage 2; * to play the Stage 2 matches after the Tokyo Olympic Games in August or September. The Executive Board believes the above plan will ensure the integrity of the competition is retained and that 24 men’s teams and 24 women’s teams will be welcomed to the Final Stage at Cluj Napoca in September. The ETTU Secretariat will work with Associations in the coming weeks to ensure suitable dates and hosts are found for the C groups B groups and Stage 2 matches. An update and report will be provided to the Extraordinary Congress meeting on Saturday 13th February 2021.
Nine players will qualified for Tokyo at the 2021 European Olympic Singles Qualification in Lisbon
10th -14th February 2021 https://www.ettu.org The Portuguese Table Tennis Federation was accepted to host the Olympic Singles Qualification in Lisbon from 10 to 14 February 2021. After five days of the competition five men and four women will qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. During the first meeting in the 2021 earlier in January ETTU Executive Board supported the Russian Table Tennis Federation request to re-locate the European Olympic qualification due to transport and logistics reasons due to possible problems with the flight of players and coaches to the venue of the competition. The offer of the Portuguese Table Tennis Federation was accepted to host the event in Lisbon. All players entered shall satisfy the following conditions 1) Their National Olympic Committee (NOC) has not yet qualified their maximum quota for the 2020 Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Singles Events 2) Players are eligible for participation in the Olympic Games as per regulation 4.5.1. of the ITTF Handbook 3) The maximum number of players a NOC may enter is equal to the remaining quota places available to this NOC. Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) may enter up to 4 players (maximum 2 men and 2 women) except that: The NOC whose team won the gold medal at the 2nd European Games team event (Germany men and Germany women) and the NOC whose team has qualified through the Olympic Team Qualification event in January 2020 for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games team events(men’s teams Croatia France Portugal Slovenia Serbia Sweden and women’s teams Austria Hungary Poland Romania) cannot send players; The NOC whose player won the gold medal silver medal and bronze medal at the 2nd European Games singles event and whose team did not qualify for the Olympic Team event may only send 1 man (Denmark) or 1 woman (Portugal Luxembourg). Maximum 2 players from an NOC can qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games individual events. 5 men and 4 women will qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games individual events. If additional qualification places are available the ETTU Executive Board will announce any required changes to the Playing Format described here. The gold silver and bronze medalists of the 2nd European Games singles event in Minsk Belarus 22nd – 29th June 2019 are direct qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games individual events. The players will be seeded based on the February 2021 Olympic Ranking list if not available at the time of the draw the January2021 Olympic Ranking list will be used. All matches are the best of 7 games. ETTU Online Entry System will be used. The online entry system will be open from 11th January 2021. Online entries will be closed on 26th January 2021. The deadline to provide the accommodation/travel details is 26th January 2021. Changes in the entries received after the final entries must be made through an e-mail to the ETTU Competition Manager 7th February 2021. Alen IVANČIN’s E-mail address is competition@ettu.org. The venue is Pavilhão Multiusos de Odivelas for both Men’s and Women’s Events. You can see Prospectus here and the System of play here. Other relevat documents here.
January 14th is the deadline for the ETTU Development Webinar
ETTU Development Webinar will be held on the Zoom platform on January 18th. The deadline for applications is Thursday January 14th before 22 (CET). The topic of this webinar will be “How and in what way to keep the focus on the player’s performance (not on the result)?”This web camp will be open to all ETTU National Team level coaches and National Team level players. Each National Association can send as much entries as they wish. In case that the entries exceed the total limit the participant quota for each NA will be two male and two female players and two male and two female coaches and extra entries will be put into the waiting list. The session will take place on Zoom programme online at 11.00 (CET) 10.00 (GMT) 12.00 (Istanbul Tel Aviv) and will take app. 2 hours. The lecturers are Amir ZULIC and Ivana SADAIC. In the Project Management Team are: Prof. ETTU Development Manager Neven CEGNAR ETTU Development Webinar Director Samet POLAT. The entries must be sent to Mr. Neven CEGNAR (ETTU Development Manager) via e-mail to ncegnar@gmail.com
Borussia Düsseldorf clinched the title at the LIEBHERR Cup final
Borussia Düsseldorf prevailed in the Germany’s LIEBHERR Cup final and clinched the second title of the season after the Champions League triumph earlier in December. In the final in the Ratiopharm arena in Ulm / Neu-Ulm it was a 3: 1 against the long-term adversaries TTF LIEBHERR Ochsenhausen. Now they are aiming for the Bundesliga (TTBL) title for the fourth perfect season in the club’s history. Timo BOLL made it clear on Saturday evening: “It’s a great victory ” said the Borussia Düsseldorf superstar after the 27th Cup triumph in the club’s history. Before that BOLL had once again become the decisive man for the record Cup winner in the Liebherr Cup final. The 39-year-old contributed two wins in the 3-1 final against TTF LIEBHERR Ochsenhausen. “Against Ochsenhausen we always have the feeling of being the hunter ” he added. “The win is all the better now. It’s always a nice feeling to be able to stand upstairs. “ It was only in mid-December that Düsseldorf won the first trophy of the season with the Champions League title and now can hope for the fourth triple in the club’s history after 2010 2011 and 2018. What is still missing is the title in the table tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) in which Borussia is currently on a sovereign play-off course and leads the table after a little more than half of the season. In the final of the Final Four tournament it was not only Boll who shone with his 3-0 (11: 8 11: 8 11: 7) against Kanak JHA and the 3:1 (11: 5 12:10 10: 12 12:10) against Hugo CALDERANO. Kristian Karlsson could also be congratulated on Saturday: After 0: 2 sets in reverse against CALDERANO the Swede bit into the match and won 3:2 (5:11 5:11 11: 6 11: 7 11: 4 ) and put his Düsseldorf on the road to success. “I am a fighter. I didn’t want to give up and just played ”said KARLSSON afterwards. The point for Ochsenhausen was contributed by Simon Gauzy who had a very strong day and defeated Anton KÄLLBERG 3: 2 (8:11 11: 4 11: 7 9:11 12:10) – for Källberg it was that only second defeat in the 27th season game in all competitions. Danny Heister was “overjoyed” in the evening. The Dutch coach who had extended his contract with Borussia a few days before the Final Four until 2023 said: “A big compliment goes to my whole team. We had to go without titles for two years so I’m all the happier that it has already worked out twice this season. The team has the same goals we’re going in one direction together – it’s great fun. “ Ochsenhausen on the other hand had their consolation in silver. After winning the double crown in 2019 the team had to pass a title to ASV Grünwettersbach (Cup) and 1. FC Saarbrücken TT (Championship) last season. In all competitions it was the sixth final participation in a row for the TTF. “Against Düsseldorf it’s always close games in which we usually had the better end for us recently ” said GAUZY “this time the game unfortunately went to Borussia. Of course we are disappointed. But we’re attacking again. But today my congratulations go to Düsseldorf first. Nico STEHLE Managing Director of the Tischtennis Bundesliga (TTBL) GmbH was able to look forward to a successful and historic table tennis day. After more than 4 600 fans attended the Liebherr Cup final last year and created a record crowd this year’s Final Four had to do without spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s a shame that we weren’t able to receive any fans in the Ratiopharm arena this year. Sport lives from emotions and the atmosphere so we hope that it will be possible to attend sporting events again soon ”said STEHLE. Final TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen – Borussia Düsseldorf 1:3 Hugo Calderano – Kristian Karlsson 2:3 (11:5 11:5 6:11 7:11 4:11) Kanak Jha – Timo Boll 0:3 (8:11 8:11 7:11) Simon Gauzy – Anton Källberg 3:2 (8:11 11:4 11:7 9:11 12:10) Hugo Calderano – Timo Boll 1:3 (5:11 10:12 12:10 10:12) Semi finals TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen – TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt 3:2 Hugo Calderano – Alvaro Robles 3:0 (11:8 11:5 11:6) Kanak Jha – Benedikt Duda 1:3 (13:11 6:11 9:11 6:11) Simon Gauzy – Stefan Fegerl 3:0 (11:5 11:6 11:4) Hugo Calderano – Benedikt Duda 2:3 (3:11 11:4 11:13 11:7 4:11) Simon Gauzy/Samuel Kulczycki – Alvaro Robles/Stefan Fegerl 3:0 (17:15 11:5 11:8) Borussia Düsseldorf – ASV Grünwettersbach 3:1 Timo Boll – Deni Kozul 3:2 (6:11 11:7 11:3 5:11 11:5) Anton Källberg – Dang Qiu 3:2 (7:11 11:7 5:11 11:6 11:4) Kristian Karlsson – Wang Xi 0:3 (7:11 7:11 7:11) Timo Boll – Dang Qiu 3:1 (9:11 11:6 11:5 14:12)
Fan Zhendong & Chen Meng headline first release of new ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking.
New Year new ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking! Approved on 21 December 2020 by the ITTF Executive Committee the now weekly ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking lists have been published for the first time under a brand-new name and structure with Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng starting 2021 as the best players in the world. The transition from the ITTF World Rankings to the ITTF Table Tennis World Rankings commences with players retaining 80% of their December 2020 ITTF World Ranking points. These points will be progressively reduced by a further 10% every 7 weeks up to week 49 which means there is no change to the current top 5 players in the world. ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking : MEN’S SINGLES 2021 Week #1 FAN Zhendong CHN XU Xin CHN1 MA Long CHN LIN Gaoyuan CHN Tomokazu HARIMOTO JPN Hugo CALDERANO BRA LIN Yun-Ju TPE Mattias FALCK SWE LIANG Jingkun CHN Timo BOLL GER JANG Woojin KOR Dimitrij OVTCHAROV GER Other Europeans 15. Liam PITCHFORD ENG16. Patrick FRANZISKA GER20. Simon GAUZY FRA24. Robert GARDOS AUT 25. Marcos FREITAS POR27. Vladimir SAMSONOV BLR 29. Kristian KARLSSON SWE 30. Jonathan GROTH DEN31. Darko JORGIC SLO 33. PUCAR Tomislav CRO … WOMEN’S SINGLES2021 Week #1 CHEN Meng CHN SUN Yingsha CHN Mima ITO JPN WANG Manyu CHN DING Ning CHN ZHU Yuling CHN LIU Shiwen CHN CHENG I-Ching TPE Kasumi ISHIKAWA JPN WANG Yidi CHN Miu HIRANO JPN FENG Tianwei SGP CHEN Xingtong CHN DOO Hoi Kem HKG JEON Jihee KOR Sofia POLCANOVA AUT Other Europeans 19. SOLJA Petrissa GER 22. HAN Ying GER 26. Bernadette SZOCS ROU27. Britt EERLAND NED32. Margaryta PESOTSKA UKR33. LI Qian POL 34. Elizabeta SAMARA ROU 39. Nina MITTELHAM GER REFRESHED WORLD RANKING STRUCTURE With the launch of WTT in 2021 the new rankings structure incorporates the Grand Smash WTT Cup Finals WTT Champions and WTT Contender Series events for the very first time with the winner of Grand Smash events collecting 2000 ranking points and placing it at the same level as the WTTC and Olympics. WTT Cup Finals winners will earn 1500 points while 1000 points are on offer for WTT Champions events. The Contender Series splits into two categories WTT Star Contender where players will compete for 600 ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking points while 400 points will be available at WTT Contender events.The allocation of points by round also changes under the new structure with players rewarded for their performance by round in a proportional merit-based way based on the new event structure including qualifying players being able to add any points earned in qualifying rounds their main draw ranking points. The new ranking structure will create a fairer progressive and more dynamic system that will contribute to greater fluctuation for players while making it clearer for fans media broadcasters and sponsors to understand where each event fits and allow WTT to tell the story of each season. In a major change to the publications of the rankings the ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking will now be published weekly on a Tuesday that will create more variation in player entry lists and field compositions and lead to greater rankings fluctuations for players and engaging fans by creating more excitement through the rankings. Performance at the WTT Youth Series will once again be incorporated in the new ranking structure with ranking points offered for those participating in the U/19 age category events and providing a platform that will help create a continuous journey through the tiers of the sport to become World Number 1.
Timo BOLL: In Champions League we have tasted blood again
LIEBHERR Cup final in Germany this Saturday On Saturday Timo BOLL and mighty Borussia Düsseldorf will compete in the LIEBHERR Cup final. In the semifinals of the Final Four tournament it they will meet ASV Grünwettersbach; in other duel TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen will play against TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt Borussia Düsseldorf has been in excellent shape since the start of the season. As always they aiming at all titles. “We just worked hard partly in our homes partly in the German Table Tennis Center in Düsseldorf. And basically we have a strong team ” said Timo BOLL. Anton KÄLLBERG is one of the top players in the Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) with a 14: 1 record this season and even remained unbeaten in the Champions League. How do you see its development? “Anton is still a young athlete who is now in a flow and works consistently well. This is also noticeable at the table. It undoubtedly has great potential.” Shortly before Christmas Düsseldorf won the Champions League. How important was this sense of achievement after two years without a title? “It is clear that it was good for all of us. Now we’ve tasted blood again. It was especially important for the many people behind and around the team who do a self-sacrificing work so that we can offer good performance.” Your personal results are also convincing but you did not always seem in top form. How badly do you still have the back problems from the summer? “I haven’t been in top form for a long time that’s right. I had significant problems with my back in the summer and was completely without match practice. But now I’m on the right track.” On January 9th the Final Four will commence with the semi-finals against ASV Grünwettersbach against whom Düsseldorf has won nine of the last ten games. How do you rate your opponent? “They are a very strong opponent that we don’t judge based on our previous record but based on the individual strengths of the players.” It will be a special game for Ricardo WALTHER and Dang QIU in particular. His teammate WALTHER will move to Grünwettersbach in the summer QIU will go the opposite way. How do you as a player deal with such a situation? “Oh you should not ask me that question because I have never been in this position. (laughs) But I am sure Ricardo and Dang will ignore that and give everything for their current club.” The final will be played against the winner of the other game between TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen and TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt. Which adversary do you want for the final? “First of all we have to beat Grünwettersbach. Everything else is a dream of the future.” The final will be shown live on SPORT1 and in the stream of Sportdeutschland.TV from 3.30 p.m.
ETTU Development Webinar on January 18th
After a tiring 2020 – not only for table tennis community but also for the whole world – Table Tennis is in action in Europe again. There have been some projects applied by ETTU to overcome the Pandemic in 2020 and now New Year begins with a new work “ETTU Development Webinar”. The topic of this webinar will be “How and in what way to keep the focus on the player’s performance (not on the result)?” This web camp will be open to all ETTU National Team level coaches and National Team level players. Each National Association can send as much entries as they wish. In case that the entries exceed the total limit the participant quota for each NA will be two male and two female players and two male and two female coaches and extra entries will be put into the waiting list. The session will take place on Zoom programme online at 11.00 (CET) 10.00 (GMT) 12.00 (Istanbul Tel Aviv) and will take app. 2 hours. In the Project Management Team are: Prof. ETTU Development Manager Neven CEGNAR ETTU Development Webinar Director Samet POLAT. The lecturers are Amir ZULIC – working on psychological preparation of athletes since 1994. – worked with more than 700 athletes in more than 40 sports – more than 60 medals from WC EC and OG – in table tennis: worked with Tamara Boroš Zoran Primorac Andrej Gaćina for several years. – teaching sport psychology at the Football Academy of the Croatian Football Federation since 2004. – having fun working with athletes and coaches Ivana SADAIC working on psychological preparation of athletes since 2016. – worked with athletes in individual (kick-boxing tennis) and team sports (handball football) – working as associate in the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Zagreb – coordinating a Team for psychological crisis intervention – always dreamed to be sport psychologist The entries must be sent to Mr. Neven CEGNAR (ETTU Development Manager) via e-mail to ncegnar@gmail.com before January 13th 2021 – 8 p.m. (CET)
Executive Board meeting Monday 4 January 2021
On Monday January 4 the first meeting of the ETTU 2021 Executive Board was held under the leadership of President Igor Levitin.1. A statement by the Russian Table Tennis Federation was heard in which it was reported that Moscow is ready to provide all conditions for holding competitions in accordance with the requirements of the COVID-19 protocol. However for transport and logistics reasons due to possible problems with the flight of players and coaches to the venue of the competition the Russian Table Tennis Federation does not risk it and refuses to hold the European Olympic qualification next month.The Executive Board thanked the Russian Table Tennis Federation for their readiness and accepted the request to re-locate the tournament.The offer of the Portuguese Table Tennis Federation was accepted to host the European Olympic qualification in Lisbon from 10 to 14 February 2021.During the same period it is proposed to hold a meeting of the ETTU Executive Board as well as an extraordinary ETTU Congress online (from 12 to 14 February).2. The matches of the 1st group stage of the European Team Championship will be scheduled for 2 days from Tuesday 16 to Sunday 21 February. The order and venue will be announced additionally.3. The Secretariat has agreed with ITTF Chair of Sports Science and Medicine Dr. Miran Kondric that his advice and guidance on the COVID-19 prevention and protection protocol will be considered on a case-by-case basis.4. The Executive Board approved the composition of the ETTU delegation for negotiations with the ITTF consisting of the ETTU President ETTU Deputy President and representatives of the associations of Belgium Germany North Macedonia and Romania.A presentation by ETTU on the new structure of world rankings was agreed which will be used in negotiations with the ITTF.President Levitin thanked the Portuguese Table Tennis Federation for its willingness to promptly host the European Olympic Singles Qualification in Lisbon and thanked the Executive Board members for their contribution to this decision.
