ITTF-European Championships Teams Stage 2 Men’s Event – First Round The Second Stage of the ITTF-European Championships Teams is playing in five groups each in Men’s and Women’s Events. After two days of matches the best ranked two teams will booked their positions in the Final STage this September in France. In National TV Studio in Bucharest Romania overcame Lithuania in the opening match. They did it in straight matches. European vice champion IONESCU overcame LESIV to give his team a dream start. SZOCS and PLETEA followed the winning path against STANKEVICIUS and SKUCAS. Denmark faced no difficulties in the opening match against Switzerland in Roskilde. Jonathan GROTH beat Lars POSCH Andreas LIND recorded victory over Lionel WEBER whilst Tobias RASMUSSEN succeeded in the match against Dorian GIROD. Havirov hosted the match between Czech Republic and Ireland. Pavel SIRUCEK Lyubomir JANCARIK and Tomas POLANSKY easily prevailed against Alexander GILLEN Zak WILSON and Ryan FARREL 3:0 (9:0). In the same venue Hungary overcame Israel 3:0. Adam SZUDI Bence MAJAROS and Nandor ECSEKI prevailed against Omri BEN ARI Michael TAUBER and Aviv BEN ARI. Unlike in previous matches there were no lack of drama in the encounter between Luxembourg and Bulgaria. At the beginning Eric GLOD beat Petyo Ivelinov KRASTEV in full five games so the close start gave good hint that we can expect the thrilling match. Stanislav GOLOVANOV proved too strong for Christian KILL and Teodor ALEXANDROV overcame Gilles MICHELY to give Bulgaria the lead. GLOD managed to equal the match and in five games KILL beat KRASTEV for the victory. In the same Group in Helsinki we saw another thriller. Turkey was stretched to full distance in their encounter against Finland. Olah BENEDEK recorded victories in both his matches against Talha YINGLER and Ibrahim GUNDUZ but Turkey proved they had a stronger team. GUNDUZ beat Alex NAUMI Batuhan ULUCAK prevailed against Miihha O CONNOR and YINGLER beat NAUMI. In Tallinn Italy overcame host nation. BOBOCICA beat LUSHIN in four games STOYANOV overcame SMIRNOV whilst MUTTI beat STROGOV in straight games. In the same Group of four England overcame Ukraine in very difficult match. Paul DRINKHALL needed five games to overcame Yevhen PRYSHCEPA and then Liam PITCHFORD lost his match against Victor YEFIMOV by same margin. Samuel WALKER beat Yaroslav ZMUDENKO in another full distance match but PITCHFORD suffered another defeat. This time by the hands of PRYSHCEPA 2:3. In the decisive match DRINKHALL managed to seal the duel in favor of England. Women’s Event – First Round In Istanbul Russia showed no mercy against Lithuania – 3:0. Polina MIHAILOVA Olga VOROBEVA and Yana NOSKOVA easily prevail against Auguste MALEIKAITE Kornelija RILISKYTE and Ugne BASKUTYTE. Only Yana was forced to go full distance. In Group 2 Spain prevailed against Belgium. Maria XIAO Galia DVORAK and ZHANG Xuan overcame Margo DEGRAEF Lisa LUNG and Nathalie MARCHETTI. Only Maria XIAO faced pressure in the match against DEGRAEF in the opening match. Italy had a good morning session in both Events. Following the victory of Men’s team in Estonia Women overcame Estonia in Belgrade. Deabora VIVARELI and TAN Wenling beat Reelica HANSON and Airi AVAMERi in straight games whilst Giorgia PICOLIN needed one more to beat Valeria PETROVA. Greece beat Switzerland in five matches. Rachel MORET scored twice against Maria CHRISTOFORAKI and Aikaterini TOLIOU. Celine REUST lost against TOLIOU Konstantina PARIDI beat Rahel ASCHWANDEN and CHRISTOFORAKI overcame REUST. In Bulgaria hosts overcame Slovenia. Maria YOVKOVA and Polina TRIFONOVA overcame Aleksandra VOVK and Katarina STRAZAR whilst Ana TOFANT recorded only victory for Slovenia’s team against Kalina HRISTOVA.
European Club Competitions deadline extended
ETTU Club Competitions entry deadline is extended until Friday 31st May 1200 CET We witnessed the outstanding season in the Champions Leagues. Both no. 2 seeds Fakel-Gazprom Orenbrug and KTS Enea Siarka Tarnobrzeg won the title in one of the most fantastic editions. Fakel-Gazprom won all its 12 matches during the season facing two tough obstacles in the last two stages. It’s the fifth crown in the history for the Fakel Gazprom club of Orenburg after 2011/12 2012/13 2014/15 and 2016/17. Last year’s winner Borussia Düsseldorf record holder with 11 titles was beaten by UMMC in an exciting semi-final. Three out of four semi-finalists were ECLW champions (Dr. Casl TTC Berlin Eatside and Linz AG Froschberg) but this time the trophy went to the former runner-up Tarnobrzeg bringing first ever ECLW crown to Poland. The team of Zbignew NECEK just lost one match in the group stage. The Spanish club UCAM Cartagena overcoming the French club of from CP Lyssois Lille Metropole in the Women ETTU Cup final. French Team from Hennebont clinched their first ETTU Cup men title over previous winner Saarbrücken. Starting with the upcoming season the ETTU Cup is renamed in Europe Cup. 2018-19 season: Participation of 94 clubs 44 Women and 50 Men from 23 nations played altogether 1093 matches. Registration for the 2019-2020 season are to be submitted to registration@ettu.org . Click here to download all relevant forms Draws: The draws for all European Club Competition will be held at the ETTU office in Luxembourg. Europe Cup Women and Men: Friday 14th June 2019 start at 1030 CET Table Tennis Champion League Men: Friday 14th June 2019 start 1300 CET European Champions League Women: Saturday 15th June 2019 start 1200 CET The draws will be live streamed. Dates ECC 2019-2020 TTCLM ECLW R1 11-13.09.2019 13-15.09.2019 R2 16-18.10.2019 21-22.10.2019 R3 30.10-01.11.2019 25-27.10.2019 R4 20-22.11.2019 01-03.11.2019 R5 04-06.12.2019 22-24.11.2019 R6 09-10.12.2019 06-08.12.2019 QF1 15-17.01.2020 10-12.01.2020 QF2 12-14.02.2020 14-16.02.2020 SF1 01-05.04.2020 03-05.04.2020 SF2 15-19.04.2020 17-19.04.2020 F1 06-10.05.2020 08-10.05.2020 F2 27-31.05.2020 29-31.05.2020 Europe Cup men and women R1 14-15.09.2019 R2 12-13.10.2019 R3 01-03.11.2019 (leg 1) R3 08-10.11.2019 (leg 2) R4 06-08.12.2019 (leg 1) R4 06-08.12.2019 (leg 2) QF1 07-09.02.2020 QF2 14-16.02.2020 SF1 03-05.04.2020 SF2 17-19.04.2020 F1 08-10.05.2020 F2 29-31.05.2020
Digital media records broken during 2019 World Table Tennis Championships
On court the Liebherr 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships will forever be remembered as one of the sport’s most dramatic events of all time as shock results and thrilling performances captured the attention of both the longstanding table tennis fans who may have thought they had seen it all before as well as a completely new generation of followers totally in awe of events unfolding in Budapest. Telling the story from the Hungarian capital the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) reached and engaged with record-breaking audiences both on its in-house platforms (itTV and ITTF.com) and on its full range of social media channels while ensuring that TV viewers across the globe were treated to the best action from the sport’s greatest annual event. TV goes more global than ever Viewers from over 145 countries were treated to a total of 1 176 hours of TV coverage from Budapest (up from 140 nations and 862 hours in 2018) seeing the cumulative audience sit at 265.07 million people and cumulative reach at 665.71 million. Of the major broadcasters China’s CCTV & CCTV 5+ channels showed 81 hours of action Japan’s TV Tokyo contributed 21 hours and Eurosport 1 & 2 channels showed 16 hours with an additional 103 hours broadcast on the Eurosport player. Data provided by CSM Sports & Media Research has also revealed that the Men’s Singles Finals between European pride Mattias FALCK (SWE) and defending Champion MA Long (CHN) made it to the top of the chart to become the most watched TV sports programme of the year so far in China reaching 41 million TV audiences with close to 25 million simultaneous viewers on CCTV-5 at its peak. Entertaining on in-house platforms The ITTF’s live streaming platform itTV broke new ground in Budapest with an average 44 800 unique viewers tuning in from 148 countries for a total of 4.8 million sessions (up from 3.6 million in 2017). As many as eight tables were streamed live during the first half of the event bringing unique levels of access to ITTV subscribers. It was an event to remember also on ITTF.com with 1.05 million readers visiting the official website (up from 691 000 in 2018). Providing live updates on the main event blog features flash quotes round-up articles and preview pieces ITTF.com also drew a record 5.59 million page views over the eight days. Youtube. You win! The go-to place for match highlights you’d only have to visit the ITTF’s official Youtube account to watch the very best of the action from Budapest. 80.57 million impressions 8.6 million video views and 34.7 million viewed minutes sum up a huge success story for the platform which completely smashed previous figures of 977 000 video views and 1.54 million viewed minutes from the 2018 World Championships. In addition to match highlights Youtube followers can continue to enjoy a whole range of videos posted during the event such as the #TATATrickshot Challenge the #LiebherrLive series the #InsideMyMind series not to mention all of the behind the scenes content coming from the HUNGEXPO venue. Transformation on Twitter Treated to constant video clips updating on the all the big results key turning points standout shots and rallies not to mention the bespoke World Championships emoji appearing next to all event hashtags those following the ITTF on Twitter accounted for a meteoric rise not least in terms of total impressions: over 20 million compared to 3.5 million in 2018. The timely use of media polls to get fans sending in their predictions and GIFs to capture the raw emotions in the moment also helped ramp up total engagements to almost 650 000 while approximately 8.4 million media views provided the latest proof of how the ITTF’s partnership with Twitter is bearing fruit on the biggest stage. Impressing on Instagram Enormous gains were registered also on Instagram where the cream of the competition’s video and photographic content drew unprecedented levels of activity: over 23.5 million impressions on posts alone marked an increase of over 10 million on 2018’s figures while total reach exceeded 14 million users and likes weighed in at 1.37 million. Meanwhile Instagram Lives accounted for 5.14 million impressions (up from 1.89 million in 2018) as users enjoyed unique access to the practice hall the stands and even courtside to see some of the biggest stars at work. Loving it live on Facebook A total 27.56 million impressions on Facebook marked yet another social media high at a World Championships with users keen to consume all kinds of video content on the platform varying from incredible rallies and major upsets to behind the scenes and much more as total reach (18.6 million) and video views (5.7 million) also grew on figures from the previous individual World Championships held in 2017 in Dusseldorf (10.3 million and 4.3 million respectively). Followers were treated also to a selection of live streamed matches the best of which saw 100 000 viewers tune in to watch one of the biggest shocks in Budapest as Simon Gauzy defeated Xu Xin in style. Chinese social success On-court glory for Chinese table tennis stars was matched by record interaction on the nation’s social networks: The 2019 World Championships hashtag garnered a staggering 500 million impressions on Weibo marked a record high at a World Championships for the ITTF’s largest Chinese social platform. The event also 50.4 million post views and 187 000 engagements registered on the ITTF’s Weibo account over the eight days. New ground was broken also on WeChat (@ITTFChannel) with 83 300 article views and on Toutiao: the ever more popular news app saw 700 million video impressions 119 million article impressions and 43 million video views. ITTF’s Chinese digital media partner ZhiboTV also saw over 20.6 million page views from 5.7 million unique visitors for the live streaming of the World Championships on their OTT platform. On the success of the Liebherr 2019 World Table Tennis Championships ITTF Marketing Director Matt POUND shared: The ITTF has gone from
2019 “Hua Xin Cup Belt and Road” Cup
Huangshi International Youth Table Tennis Invitational Tournament will be held from 25th to 27th June. The organisers Huangshi Culture and Tourism Bureau Huangshi Sports Development Center Quanguan Sports Culture Industry (Beijing) Co. Ltd. as well as co-organisers Chinese Table Tennis Team Huangshi Training Base invites players and coaches to the tournament and to the pre-competition training camp. The camp commences on June 20th. Location of the pre-competition training camp is Chinese Table Tennis Team Huangshi Training Base whilst the tournament will be held in Hubei Huangshi Stadium. There will be singles and teams events for players: 11 to 12 years old and 13 to 15 years old. To promote the world’s youth table tennis sports and strengthen the exchange among table tennis youth athletes this tournament specially sets the training camp before the competition; During the 5-day training period the organizing committee will invite senior Chinese table tennis coaches to serve as technical guides and assemble a team of excellent young table tennis coaches in China to provide training guidance for each participating team. Each participating team must send the registration form to the event organizing committee to Email: ydyl@qg-sports.com before May 31 2019; contact person: Wang Zhan (cell: 13911992533) Li Mei (cell 18601901224); Eligibility: 1) The Chinese youth team selected by the sponsor; 2)Youth team sent by the invited state/regional table tennis association 3)The youth team selected by the organiser
ITTF Launches Bidding for 2020 ITTF PARA TABLE TENNIS EVENTS
he International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has launched the bidding process for the new and expanded 2020 ITTF Para Events. ITTF PARA EVENTS Since the mid 90s Para Table Tennis players have had the opportunity to compete in international tournaments in a regular way. Currently Para Events are run by the International Table Tennis Federation with a series of events for new and also experienced players to challenge themselves and earn international recognition. The 2019 ITTF Para Events were extremely successful with the highest ever number of participants. Next year’s ITTF Para Events will consist of six ITTF Factor 40 events and ITTF Factor 20 events. ITTF Factor 40 events will offer players higher world ranking points with better playing conditions and most importantly greater players exposure. What’s more the first quarter of 2020 will still be part of the qualification period for Tokyo 2020 which build up the excitement of the events. The more flexible requirements of the ITTF Factor 20 events will also allow more cities to get on board to host an international table tennis event gaining experience just as the new and upcoming players are! “The Italian Table Tennis Federation has been organizing the Lignano Master Open since 2010 and that experience allowed us to host the 2013 European Para Championships ” said Giuseppe Vella Tournament Director of Lignano Master Open. “The event held in Sports Tourist Village – Bella Italia uses facilities with very high accessibility for people in wheelchairs with a large number of adapted rooms and a functional sports venue with a capacity of 2000 seats. In all these years this tournament has given a perfect opportunity for more than 30 Italian Para athletes to compete against the best players in the world.” Deadline for bid submission: 7 June 2019 WHY HOST? Great way to develop local players to get them in to the international event scene; Raise awareness about the benefits of sport among people with disabilities; Great way to start off hosting higher level events; Bring an affordable international event to your city; Great opportunity to watch Paralympic champions in action. Visit our bidding website for more information and submit your bids now! For further enquiries please contact Pablo Perez and Emese Barsai.
ANDREEV: 2018/19 TTCLM final brought spectacular world-class table tennis
Vice-president of TTC Fakel-Gazprom praises his players for great will power and patience Vice-president of TTC Fakel-Gazprom Victor ANDREEV commented the 2018/19 TTCLM final and the victory of his side against TTSC UMMC in the all-Russian showdown. Eight-time national champion from Orenburg beat twice 3:2 UMMC to clinch its fifth TTCLM title “The second final match of the European Champions League was held in a very tense struggle” stated Victor ANDREEV after the clash held last Wednesday May 8th. “All players from both Russian teams presented a real holiday to table tennis fans. The audience enjoyed a spectacular world-class table tennis. Fortune was again on the side of Orenburg club. Fakel-Gazprom has perfectly completed one of the most important tasks of the season 2018-2019.” Orenburg won 19th trophy in 18 years of its history. Founded in 2001 this club won five TTCM titles in last eight seasons. “Our team won the most prestigious European trophy – the Cup of the European Champions League for the 5th time having won a difficult victory with the score 3:2. Having demonstrated great skill great will power and patience Vladimir SAMSONOV Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and YAN An have brought one more very significant victory for our team Fakel-Gazprom. The club’s management and team players thank the numerous fans of Fakel-Gazprom for their support and faith in our team” stressed ANDREEV.
POLCANOVA leads the Europe’s list in Zagreb
Seamaster 2019 ITTF Challenge Croatia Open in Zagreb Chinese Taipei’s CHUANG Chih-Yuan is the top seed in the men’s singles event at the Seamaster 2019 ITTF Challenge Croatia Open in Zagreb. The list of seedes goes on with Sweden’s Kristian KARLSSON the no.2 seed who reached the quarter-final round at the CCB 2019 Europe Top 16 Cup; across the Atlantic Ocean at the Universal 2019 Pan American Cup the next in line gained podium places. Kanak Jha of the United States was the silver medallist Brazil’s Gustavo Tsuboi the bronze medal winner. At the Seamaster 2019 ITTF Challenge Croatia Open the Belgium partnership of Martin ALLEGRO and Florent LAMBIET quarter-finalists recently in Serbia occupy the top seeded spot. Japan’s Saki SHIBATA defends her women’s singles at the Seamaster 2019 ITTF Challenge Croatia Open. Austria’s Sofia POLCANOVA is no. three on the entry list whilst last year’s silver medallist Romania’s Elizabeta SAMARA is listed at no. four. The matches in main draw commences tomorrow.
NECEK: Tarnobrzeg’s dream came true
“It was our goal for a long time and we are extremely happy” stressed coach of KTS Enea Siarka Tarnobrzeg newly crowned ECLW champion Poland’s club KTS Enea Siarka Tarnobrzeg enjoys in its historic success first ever ECLW title secured last Saturday in the Croatian city of Zagreb after second leg of the 2018/19 ECLW final. Tarnobrzeg won both matches 3:2 but its coach and manager Zbigniew NECEK explains that it wasn’t so easy: “This is unbelievable gorgeous success. It is a miracle that we beat Zagreb twice thanks of a great character of my players. Our dreams came true! It was our goal for a long time and we are extremely happy. Dr. CASL was for us a favourite before this duel and specially before revenge match in Zagreb because GU Ruochen couldn’t support us. We got to know a few days earlier that DOO Hoi Kem will come for 2nd leg match and play against us as well LI Qian twisted ankle on Monday and she made two short practices before a match – only on Friday and in the day’s match. She could hardly move.” LI Qian had her best ever season as she won both individual and club’s European title: “It is very hard to play in Zagreb we didn’t believe we can win against such reach and strong team. They have NI Xia Lian FU Yu and others who play style really unfriendly for choppers so already at the beginning they have advantage. That is why our joy is so big we are the champions…”
Tarnobrzeg recaptures ECLW title from Dr. CASL
ECLW final leg 2: Dr. CASL – KTS Enea Siarka Tarnobrzeg 2:3 (first leg 2:3) KTS Enea Siarka Tarnobrzeg is the new champion of the ECLW as they beat last year’s winner Dr. CASL 3:2 in the second final leg (6:4 on aggregate) held tonight in the Croatian city of Zagreb. This is the historic first ever ECLW crown for both Tarnobrzeg and Poland’s table tennis. The 28-time Poland’s champion made a huge step towards the title by winning first two encounters. HAN Ying beat DOO Hoi Kem in straight games of the opener while Elizabeta SAMARA overcame FU Yu after full five games. Host side responded by two convincing wins and tied the score at 2:2 thanks to NI Xia Lian and DOO Hoi Kem who prevailed against LI Qian and Elizabeta SAMARA respectively. One of the most reliable ECLW players in last couple of years HAN Ying overcame FU Yu in straight sets in the decider. It was the third ECLW finals for Tarnbrzeg in last four years. They lost to TTC Berlin Eastside twice in a row 2015/16 and 2016/17. ECLW final leg 2 Dr. CASL – KTS Enea Siarka Tarnobrzeg 2:3 DOO Hoi Kem – HAN Ying 0:3 (5:11 9:11 7:11) FU Yu – Elizabeta SAMARA 2:3 (3:11 11:7 10:12 13:11 4:11) NI Xia Lian – LI Qian 3:0 (11:5 11:6 11:7) DOO Hoi Kem – Elizabeta SAMARA 3:1 (2:11 11:8 11:7 11:8) FU Yu – HAN Ying 0:3 (4:11 8:11 9:11) ECLW final leg 1 KTS Enea Siarka Tarnobrzeg – Dr. CASL 3:2 GU Rouchen – LI Jie 3:0 (11:5 11:8 11:7) HAN Ying – NI Xia Lian 1:3 (4:11 4:11 11:4 6:11) Elizabeta SAMARA – FU Yu 2:3 (11:6 11:7 4:11 4:11 9:11) GU Rouchen – NI Xia Lian 3:1 (15:13 11:6 8:11 11:9) LI Qian – LI Jie 3:1 (8:11 13:11 11:8 11:4)
Hennebont won first ever title in ETTU Cup
French side beat FC Saarbrücken Tischtennis by narrow margin in two legs French Hennebont lost his second leg match gainst FC Saarbrücken Tischtennis but they managed to clinch the title in Men’s ETTU Cup by overall result. In both legs hosts won by 3:1 but French side had advanate by winning 19:16 in games. Darko JORGIC failed to beat SHENGPENG Fan; he lost in straight games and opened the doors for guests’ success. Additionaly Liam PITCHFORD forced Patrick FRANZISKA and Darko JORGIC to go full distance to secure bigger margin. FC Saarbrücken Tischtennis – G.V. Hennebont T.T. 3:1 Darko JORGIC – SHENGPENG Fan 0:3 (13:15 6:11 9:11) Patrick FRANZISKA – Liam PITCHFORD 3:2 (11:7 5:11 10:12 13:11 11:9) Tomas POLANSKY – Cedric NUYTINCK 3:1 (9:11 11:9 11:7 11:7) Darko JORGIC – Liam PITCHFORD 3:2 (9:11 6:11 11:9 11:6 11:4)
