The best table tennis players of Netherlands will battlein the first weekend of March in Landstede Sportcentrum in Zwolle during the Dutch National Championships.   Player of the national team Ewout OOSTWOUDER (ITTF number 149) wants to defend his third title in the men’s tournament. The 19-year old talent SHUOHAN Men was the big surprise of the tournament in 2018. The Chinese young women with a Dutch passport impressed the audience by beating experienced players and she won the national championships for the first time in her career. OOSTWOUDER is the favourite for the tournament victory of this year but there are good players who are likely able to beat the champion. Rajko GOMMERS and Barry WIJERS were national champions in the past and they are playing for another title in the men’s tournament.   Ladies like Britt EERLAND ( ITTF number 38) Kim VERMAAS (ITTF number 138) and of course LI Jie (ITTF number 25) are serious candidates for the victory in the woman’s tournament this year. LI Jie is the number one of the ranking list followed by Britt EERLAND and Ana GOGORITA. The current champion SHUOHAN Men is the number five of the rankings list. LI Jie is the big favourite in Zwolle.   The tournament starts on Saturday the 2th of March and the finales will take place on Sunday the 3th.   Last year’s winners:   Year   Men’s Singles              Women’s Singles 2018   Ewout Oostwouder       Shuohan Men 2017   Rajko Gommers           Li Jie 2016   Laurens Tromer           Britt Eerland 2015   Ewout Oostwouder       Li Jie 2014   Ewout Oostwouder       Li Jiao 2013   Casper ter Lüün           Li Jiao 2012   Barry Wijers                Li Jiao 2011   Martijn de Vries           Li Jiao 2010   Michel de Boer             Li Jiao   See this link for the draw the Dutch National Champions.   Fans can watch live matches on our YouTube Chanel during the championships.

2019 Swedish National Championships   In STIGA Sports Arena in Eskilstuna 2019 Swedish National Championships will take place this weekend.   The men’s singles event is quite open. Many of the top-seeded players are potential winners. The winner will also be directly qualified for the upcoming World Championships. Three players are already selected (Mattias FALCK Kristian KARLSSON & Jon PERSSON) and two more will be. If someone of the already nominated players will win the coaches and high performance director will choose two more as “wild-cards”.   Top-seeded and favourites Men’s singels: – Mattias FALCK (1st seed) – Kristian KARLSSON (2nd seed) – Truls MÖREGÅRDH (5th seed and recent winner of Safirs International junior and elit)   The two dominating Swedish female players are also seeded as number one and two. Young players like Filippa BERGAND and Christina KÄLLBERG are also potential finalists. The two top-seeded players (Matilda & Linda) are already chosen for the World Championships two more spots are available. The terms are the same as for the male players – the winner will be qualified for the WTTC and the rest will be chosen by coach/high performance director.   Women’s singles: – Matilda EKHOLM (1st seed) – Linda BERGSTRÖM (2nd seed)   2019 Swedish National Championships is now fully integrated with Para which means many different classes will fight for titles thiw weekend   Last year’s winners   Men’s singles: Kristian KARLSSON Womens singles: Matilda EKHOLM Men’s doubles: Anton KÄLLBERG/Anders ERIKSSON Women’s doubles: Matilda EKHOLM/Ellen HOLMSTEN Mixed doubles: Harald ANDERSSON/Tilda JOHANSSON Junior girls: Filippa BERGAND Junior boys: Truls MÖREGÅRDH   Schedule: https://idrottonline.se/EskilstunaBTK-Bordtennis/globalassets/eskilstuna-btk—bordtennis/sm-2019/tidsschema-sm-och-para-sm-2019_03.pdf  

National Championships of Belarus   The Belarus National Championships will be held this weekend in the Republican Center for Olympic Preparation in table tennis.   In total 24 men and 24 women will participate in the competitions. They are selected by the national rating. In 2018 Pavel PLATONOV and Marharyta BALTUSHITE clinched the titles in the singles event.   A multiple champion of the Republic of Belarus Pavel PLATONOV will have fierce competition on his way to defend the title. In the last year’s final Pavel beat Aliaksandr KHANIN. The last has only once become a champion in singles event but in the World and National rankings he already beat Pavel. The third seeded at the tournament is Kiril BARABANOV who was a bronze medalist last year. The best results of the NC in his career Kiril achieved in 2015 and 2016 when he won second place.   One of the contenders for victory in the women’s singles event is Alexandra PRIVALOVA the first seeded. In 2018 she was haplet on the third step of the podium letting Viktoria PAVLOVICH and Marharyta BALTUSHITE go ahead. Note that this year Viktoria and Marharyta will not take part in the national championships.   Good chances to win are for Daria TRIGOLOS who is the silver medalist in singles event in 2015 2016 and 2017. The additional motivation of the athlete will be given by the fact that last year she remained outside the prize-winning three.   Nadezhda BOGDANOVA closes the list of favorites. Recently she has been demonstrating progress in international results. February 2018 Nadezhda started as a 236 in the World ranking. A year later she is already at the 116th place. So far Nadezhda has no medals in singles event in the national championships of Belarus. Will she be able to intervene in the fight for first place this year?   The live broadcast of the tournament will be available on the Federation’s youtube channel.  

National Championships – Czech Republic   The city of Teplice in Northern Bohemia will host the Czech Republic National Championships from 1st to 3rd March. Last year winners Pavel SIRUCEK and Hana MATELOVA will be on duty and they want to claim the titles once again.   Pavel SIRUCEK (Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki) si currently in a very good shape two weeks ago he reached the quarterfinals stage at ITTF Challenge Plus Portugal Open.   „I’m really looking forward to play the National Championships. There will be all best players from our country so it will be very tough and interesting tournament. I think that first eight players or maybe even somebody else could won the title ” said SIRUCEK.   In the men’s singles event entries are also other members of Czech national team like Lubomir JANCARIK (Post SV Mühlhausen) Tomas konecny (PKS Kolping Frac Jaroslaw) Tomas Tregler (TTC Ostrava 2016) and young guys David REITSPIES (TV 1879 Hilpoltstein) and Tomas POLANSKY (1. F.C. Saarbrücken) reigning European champion in U21 men’s singles.   The biggest favorite in the women’s single is Hana MATELOVA (Etival ASRTT 1) who won in Teplice also six years ago and took part at this years’ European Top 16 Cup. Her biggest rivals are Dana CECHOVA (MSK Breclav) or Renata STRBIKOVA (S. S. Dielttantistica A.R.L. ANSPI) who will say farewell to her successfull international career during the tournament.   The Czech National Championships will be also a very important test before the World Championships in Budapest later this spring.

The 37-year-old 12-time champion of Germany will play last time for the national title this weekend (March 1-3) in Wetzlar. BOLL: “Participating in the German Championships has always been an honour and an obligation for me”   The upcoming German National Championships scheduled for this weekend in the city of Wetzlar will be special one as 12-time national champion Timo BOLL announced his last participation on this event.   “It’s my farewell to the national title fights my last participation in this tournament which was always very important to me. Participating in the German Championships has always been an honour and an obligation for me ” stated actual world no. 5 Timo BOLL for tischtennis.de.   Of course this is not the end of Timo BOLL career as 37-year-old (actually his birthday comes on March 8th) still has many big goals on both stages internationally and as a member of the reigning TTCLM champion Borussia Dusseldorf. For sure his presence at the 87th German National Championships will mark the end of one era of this prestigious event. In the rest of his career BOLL will be focused on several big events including LIEBHERR 2019 ITTF World Championships in Budapest and 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.   “The ITTF demands more and more from us. To be well placed in the world rankings you have to play so many tournaments. In addition I have many goals with Borussia Dusseldorf… I want to play as long as I enjoy and the body can cope. That may take a few more years” stated current European champion BOLL who has three more years of his contract with the best German club.   Defending champion Timo BOLL is the clear favourite at the German National Championships which to be held at Rittal Arena (5 000) bearing in mind that 2013 champion and actual Europe Top 16 Cup winner Dimitrij OVTCHAROV cancelled his participation. HAN Ying will defend her title in the Women Singles event faced with few big challengers including recent Europe Top 16 Cup champion Petrissa SOLJA. Actual men’s world no. 15 Patrick FRANZISKA could be the hardest obstacle on BOLL’s way to the 13th title (first one he took in 1998).   On the eve of the National Championships German Table Tennis Association has announced Timo BOLL and Kristin LANG as the national players of the 2018 year.

National Championships   The 2019 Slovak National Championships will be held this weekend in the city of Bratislava March 2-3rd as Barbora BALAZOVA is set to defend his Women’s Singles title reached last year. The main favourites in the Men’s Singles event (WANG Yang was 2018 winner) are Lubomir PISTEJ Samuel NOVOTA Samuel KALUZNY Alexander VALUCH and Thomas KEINATH while Tatiana KUKULKOVA should be the biggest threat to BALAZOVA in the women’s competition.   Alongside WANG and BALAZOVA the 2018 winner were Peter INGEMAR/Alexander VALUCH (Men’s Doubles) Ema LABOSOVA/Simona HORVATHOVA (Women’s Doubles) and Lubomir PISTEJ/Barbora BALAZOVA (Mixed Doubles).   In the same time U21 Slovak National Championships will be held. Qualification tournament is scheduled for Friday March 1st.  

National Championships – Luxembourg Last weekend Luxembourg organised national championships in the Coque/Kirchberg   Men’s SINGLES: For the first time Christian KILL has won the national title men’s simple. He beat three former national champions on the way to his first title. In the semi-finals the 27 year old player could reach the final after an exciting full distance contest with five matchballs and six matchballs of his opponent Eric GLOD. In the final Christian KILL has beaten the runner up of last year Luka MLADENOVIC 4-1.   Men’s Doubles: First title for Luka MLADENOVIC and Eric THILLEN after they lost the final last year. The 20- and 18 years old players decided the final against Traian CIOCIU/Arlindo DE SOUSA with a 3-2 victory.   Women’s Singles: For the 7th time in row Sarah DE NUTTE is women’s champion in Luxembourg. She could defend her title after she has won in the final against Tessy GONDERINGER 4-0.   Women’s Doubles: Once again a victory for Sarah de NUTTE and Tessy GONDERINGER. For the 9th time in the last 10 years they have won the title after a 3-1 victory against Egle TAMASAUSKAITE/Carole HARTMANN.     Mixed: Luka MLADENOVIC/Sarah de NUTTE are the winners of the Mixed-Competition after a 3-1 –Victory against Eric GLOD/Martine SIMON. That day it was the third title for Sarah de NUTTE and the second for Luka MLADENOVIC.  

Less than six months from now history will be made when the very first ITTF World Veterans Tour event kicks off on 8 August in Shenzhen China.   Following a bidding process which initially saw 16 cities shortlisted a total of six events are confirmed to run through 2019 in the following locations across the globe:   Shenzhen (Guangming District) China – 8-11 August Innsbruck Austria – 21-25 August Townsville Australia – 11-15 September Fort Lauderdale Florida – 17-20 October Doha Qatar – 7-10 November Cardiff Wales – 13-16 December   The 2019 ITTF World Veterans Tour represents the first professionally organised series of events to link the global community of table tennis players aged 40 and over including:   First ever Veterans World Ranking system; Consistent playing formats; Dedicated ITTF World Veterans Tour website section including event-specific pages; Enhanced marketing and social media programmes for Tour operators; Much more! “This is the ITTF’s initiative to bring together a group of players aged 40 and over from across the world in a professionally organised marketed and operated Tour. “This is not simply an opportunity for mass participation in an ever-growing veteran players community but also for host cities to put on an international sporting event with visibility boosted through the support of the ITTF’s Marketing Team ” said   Thomas Weikert ITTF President.  “The launch of the ITTF World Veterans Tour will provide all table tennis lovers with the platform for playing and promoting the culture of the sport worldwide ”  added Frank Ji Founder of Sportsmaster and Special Advisor to the ITTF President for Commercial and Business.   Player entries for the 2019 ITTF World Veterans Tour are due to open by the end of March while further cities may still be added to the current event schedule.   With seven age categories on offer and match formats including Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles events this is very much a Tour open to anyone and everyone who continues to show their passion for the sport.  Click here to find out more about the 2019 ITTF World Veterans Tour!

Latvian Individual Championships 2019   Latvian Individual Table Tennis Championships 2019 preliminary round already finished. Final Tournament will take place this weekend 2-3 march for first time it will take place in Saldus. Best 32 men and 16 women will compete for the titles in Men’s Singles Women’s Singles Men’s Doubles Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles competitions.   There are a lot of young players like Daniels KOGANS Deniss VASILJEVS Aleksandrs PAHOMOVS and girls Sabina MUSAJEVA Diana AFANASJEVA and Rezija MELKE who booked their place in Final tournament.   In the Men’s Event at the top of the list this time and main favorite is Arturs REINHOLDS who won his title in Men’s Singles event in 2018 of course Olegs KARTUZOVS Sandijs VASILJEVS and Igors SIDOROVS are also at the list of favorites. In the Women’s Event favorite is young rising star Sabina MUSAJEVA who won her title in Women’s Singles event in 2018 and Inta ZDANOVSKA Baiba BOGDANOVA and Natalija KLIMANOVA are also at the list of favorites.   See more on www.lgtf.lv and www.galdateniss.lv.     Video Broadcast of 2-3 of March you are welcome to watch on:   Youtube Live: https://www.youtube.com/user/Galdatenisslv2010   Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/galdateniss.lv