Antoine HACHARD and Romain RUIZ lost from Takuya JIN and Yuki MORITA from Japan in the final clash of Australian Open Men`s Doubles event French players Antoine HACHARD and Romain RUIZ finished as runner-up of the Men`s Doubles event at the 2016 ITTF World Tour Australian Open (Challenge) in Melbourne. They lost to Takuya JIN and Yuki MORITA from Japan in the final clash of the Men`s Doubles event – 3:0 (11:5 11:9 12:10). Previously they had a very close match against Singaporean pair CHEN Feng/LI Hu. In the final game of the Men`s Singles event two top seeds met as no. 1 seed Jun MIZUTANI (Japan) defeated LI Hu (Singapore) 4:0 (11:8 11:4 11:5 11:6). It was the third MIZUTANI`s title this year after Poland and Slovenia. Four Japanese players appeared in the semi-final of Women`s Singles event. Hina HAYATA eliminated top seeded Hitomi SATO in the semi-final duel playing full seven games 4:3 (5:11 11:7 10:12 11:4 9:11 11:9 11:9). In the ultimate chapter HAYATA overcame Yuka ISHIGAKI in five games.
Australian Open: HACHARD and SAMARA eliminated in the quarter-finals
Japanese players defeated last two European representatives: KIZUKURI – HACHARD 4:0 KATO – SAMARA 4:2 Last two representative of Europe were beaten by Japanese players in the quarter-finals of the singles events at 2016 ITTF World Tour Australian Open (Challenge) in Melbourne: Yuto KIZUKURI – Antoine HACHARD 4:0 (11:6 11:4 11:7 11:4) Miyu KATO – Elizabeta SAMARA 4:2 (10:12 11:5 11:2 9:11 11:8 11:4). The 17-year-old Yuto KIZUKURI the runner-up of the Under 21 Men’s Singles event earlier in the day upset no.3 seed HACHARD who beat two host players and one from Japan on his way to the quarter-final stage. KIZUKURI lost in the Under 21 final from his compatriot Mizuki OKAWA who eliminated Frenchman Romain RUIZ 3:1 in the semi-final stage of that event. Actual individual European champion and no. 5 seed in Melbourne Elizabeta SAMARA from Romania was leveled with no. 2 seed Miyu KATO after four games but 17-year-old showed excellent play in the next two sets. KATO earlier in the day won Under 21 Women`s Singles event.
ITTF Working Group Concludes Meeting on Format & Structure of Future Major Events
ITTF looks into the format & structure of future major events with Deloitte’s Sports Business Group The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) major events working group has concluded its second meeting to study the structure and format of the ITTF’s future major events. The two day meeting held in Singapore was facilitated by Deloitte’s Sports Business Group which is assisting the working group to analyse the ITTF’s current event structure and make recommendations on how to improve the ITTF’s major events to achieve key goals. At the conclusion of the meeting the leader of the group ITTF Vice President SHI Zhihao stated: “The past two days we had extremely fruitful discussions with my ITTF colleagues with the help of Deloitte. We are on the way on solving the issues of our major events and make the changes to grow all our events.” The ITTF major events working group led my Mr SHI is made up of the six Continental Presidents ITTF Athletes Commission representative ITTF Deputy CEO ITTF Competitions Direction and the ITTF Marketing Director. The major events working group will have to come up with a proposal to the ITTF Executive Committee by the end of this year on the concept and direction the ITTF wishes to take. The next meeting of the major events working group will take place during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
ITTF Releases Complete List of Teams and Athletes Competing at Rio 2016 Olympic Games!
Competition will be opened on August 6th by the Women`s Singles Preliminary Round followed with Men`s Singles Preliminary Round and Women`s Singles 1st Round With nearly a year long qualifications to determine the world’s best table tennis players to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is pleased to announce the full list of qualifiers heading for Rio de Janeiro to compete at the Olympic table tennis event that will be held from 6-17 August 2016. The ITTF’s “OlaRio” qualifications began with Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) and LI Jiao (NED) becoming the first male & female qualifiers through the 2015 European Games in Baku in June 2015. Brazil’s Hugo CALDERANO succeeded through the 2015 Pan American Games alongside USA’s WU Yue followed by the respective ITTF continental qualification tournaments to determine the contenders in Rio. The Olympic table tennis event at Rio 2016 will be one to be highly anticipated for as reigning Olympic Champions ZHANG Jike (CHN) and LI Xiaoxia (CHN) will be looking to defend their titles. The duo will have to fight off top team mates and current World Champions MA Long (CHN) and DING Ning (CHN) amongst other strong contenders on their quest to defend their singles gold. ZHANG who will be fighting for a second Olympic title to complete his second Grand Slam shared “There’s more motivation and pressure on me given this opportunity to defend my title and fight for a second grand slam in Rio. The Olympic Games is surely not just a contest of skills there’s much more to it to claim the title! In the lead up I will be making use of every minute before the Games getting myself fully prepared.” Despite ranking first in the world 2015 ITTF female table tennis star LIU Shiwen (CHN) will miss out playing singles in Rio and will have to settle playing in the team event. The men’s world number two and three FAN Zhendong (CHN) and XU Xin (CHN) will too miss the opportunity fighting for single glory after the Chinese National Olympic Committee confirms world number four ZHANG’s second Olympic singles appearance. History will also be made at the Olympic table tennis event with two Paralympians competing showing the world that impossible is nothing. Three times Paralympic Champion Natalia PARTYKA (POL) will be playing in her third consecutive Olympic Games in Rio and she will be joined by Australia’s Melissa TAPPER. The 26-year-old TAPPER will become the first ever athlete to represent Australia in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The English team of Liam PITCHFORD Paul DRINKHALL and Samuel WALKER who made it to the semifinals at the 2016 World Team Table Tennis Championships found themselves rewarded for their amazing run in Kuala Lumpur as they confirm their entries to represent Great Britain for the Games. PITCHFORD and DRINKHALL booked their golden tickets to Rio through the ITTF’s 22 world ranking places while WALKER will be playing in the teams. The trio will be looking to create more upsets like they did at the World Championships. Nigeria’s Segun TORIOLA will play his seventh Olympic Games after qualifying through the 2016 ITTF-Africa Olympic Qualification Tournament leveling the record set by Olympic legends Jorgen PERSSON (SWE) Jean-Michel SAIVE (BEL) and Zoran PRIMORAC (CRO). TORIOLA’s appearance in Rio will also be the most by an African in any sport writing himself into African sporting history. Rio 2016 will also see the making of few of the youngest table tennis Olympians. Host country’s Bruna TAKAHASHI (BRA) will be youngest addition to the Brazilian Olympic table tennis team at 15 years of age. 15-year-olds Adriana DIAZ (PUR) and Sally YEE (FIJ) made their qualifications for the singles event as the first Puerto Rican and Fijian to ever play in the Olympic table tennis event. Youngest ever ITTF World Tour singles champion 15-year-old Mima ITO (JPN) will represent Japan alongside teammates Kasumi ISHIKAWA and Ai FUKUHARA in Rio. In the men’s event 15-year-old Kanak JHA (USA) also will compete in both the singles & the team event as the youngest male table tennis Olympian. The Olympic table tennis event will take place from 6-17 August 2016 at RioCentro Pavilion 3. There will be four gold medals to be handed out: men’s singles women’s singles men’s team and women’s team. The singles event will be contested by 64 men and women while the best 16 teams on earth will battle to be crowned Olympic Team Champion. Competition will be opened on August 6th at 9:00 by the Women`s Singles Preliminary Round followed with Men`s Singles Preliminary Round (9:45-11:15) and Women`s Singles 1st Round (11:15-12:45). Olympic Day 5 (August 10th) will bring first medals at the Women`s Singles Event: bronze medal match starts at 20:30 while the gold medal clash is scheduled at 21:30. At the same time but following day (August 11th) Men`s Singles Event will be concluded. Both Men`s and Women`s Team events will start on August 12th. Women`s teams will fight for the medals on August 16th (bronze medal match 11:00 final game 19:30). Next day in same time Men`s teams will fight for their places on the podium.
European young stars gathered in Romania
Eurotalents Development Camp U-18 (Buzau 4th-10th of June 2016) Only day after Women Coachin Seminar concluded ETTU in Werner Schlager Academy in Austria Development Manager Neven CEGNAR moved to Romania to start the Eurotalents Development Camp U-18. It is the new Project which will reach the full swing from the beginning of 2017. On the premiere the pearls of European youth: Medardas STANKEVICIUS of Lithuania Malte MOREGARD of Sweden Christian PLETEA Rares SIPOS Adina Diaconu and Andreaa DRAGOMAN of Romania works in Buzau. Head coach is Andres JOHANSSON assisted by CEGNAR Andrei Filimon Petre ARNAUTU and Madalin IONESCU. There is another training camp planned for the U 18 players by the end of 2016. “We reached the general agreement with Japan Table Tennis Association to hold one camp at the National Training Center in Tokyo ” revealed CEGNAR.
10th June: deadline for European Club Competitions registration
The preparation for the new season of the European Club Competitions is in full swing. The closing date for registration is this Friday 10th June (midnight). The Draw for the TTCLM group stage will be held on the 24th June in Schwechat (WSA) Austria and the Draw for ECLW and both ETTU Cups on the 10th July during the European Youth Championships in Zagreb Croatia. Table Tennis Champions League Men starts 5th October European Champions League Women on 30th September and ETTU Men and Women Cups on 16th September 2016.
FREITAS: This season will stay always in my memory
Pontoise`s player sums the 2015/16 TTCLM season commenting the returning final match against Eslovs Al Bordtennis Marcos FREITAS deserves to be named as the best player of the 2015/16 Table Tennis Champions League Men. Not just because of his individual score (16-4) but knowing how many big names he beat during the season: Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (Orenburg) Vladimir SAMSONOV (Orenburg) Timo BOLL (Borussia Dusseldorf) XU Hui (Eslovs) Bastian STEGER (Werder Bremen) CHEN Weixing (Energa-Manekin Torun)… He wasn’t convinced at the beginning of the season having 3-3 score after first three rounds in Group C. It could say that the LIEBHERR 2015 ITTF European Championships was his turning point. Since he got the silver medal in Yekaterinburg (lost to OVTCHAROV in the final) he played much better in the TTCLM and won 12 matches in a row. After all the best Portuguese player led AS Pontoise Cergy to the best achievements in the club`s history winning both TTCLM and French ProA League. The peak of the season was the returning final leg of TTCLM final against Eslovs Al Bordtennis in which his side managed to recover after 3:1 (9:5) defeat. Now he describes those moments… “It was a great match. We risked and changed our formation to try to win by 3-0. We had a good start with Tristan (FLORE) and me but after KARLSSON lost to SVENSSON things got complicated. Tristan played an amazing match against XU and manage to put pressure on him and finally we won by 1 set. It was a very close match that could go to any team. I think we were the best team in Europe because we beat the best teams during the season. I am very proud of our team and this season will stay forever in my memory” stated actual world`s no. 12 Marcos FREITAS.
Olympic Legends to Play Brazil Stars in Rio Exhibition Match
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is excited to announce a mouth watering exhibition match between Olympic Legends and the Brazil Stars in Rio de Janeiro Brazil on 10 July 2016. Acting as a curtain raiser for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Table Tennis event the match will be the Brazilian Men’s National team’s last official match before their quest for home Olympic glory begins and what better opposition than a team made of Olympic Legends. The Olympic Legends will be a star studded team that have all been world number one’s in their career featuring: WANG Liqin (CHN) – 2000 Olympic Games Doubles Champion 2008 Olympic Games Team Champion 2004 & 2008 Olympic Games Single’s Bronze 3 times Singles World Champion Jorgen PERSSON (SWE) – Competed in 7 Olympic Games 1991 World Champion 4 times World Team Champion 1986 European Champion Jean-Michel SAIVE (BEL) – Competed in 7 Olympic Games 1993 World Championships Runner-up 1994 European Champion One of the most celebrated table tennis players of all time WANG Liqin stated: “I am very honoured to receive the invitation from the ITTF to participate in this event. I hope that this event will allow more people to understand table tennis and promote the Olympic table tennis event and the development of table tennis in Brazil.” The much anticipated match will be held at the Botafogo Arena on 10 July at 9:00-12:00 noon and can be seen live in Brazil on SportTv and globally exclusively on ITTF’s YouTube channel (YouTube.com/ITTFChannel). The Olympic Legends may have a truckload of medals between them but they will have a tough match on their hands against a very powerful Brazilian team led by 2014 Youth Olympic Games Bronze Medalist and current Pan American Games Champion Hugo CALDERANO. The 19-year-old will be supported by two times Latin American Cup champion Gustavo TSUBOI and Cazuo MATSUMOTO against the legends. If the world was not already excited by the impending Olympic Table Tennis event they will be after this spectacle! The Rio 2016 Olympic Games Table Tennis event will take place on 6-17 August 2016 at RioCentro Pavilion 3. Don’t miss out on getting your ticket to the world’s fastest reflex sport today: https://www.rio2016.com/tickets/findoutmore/. Watch the event promo video here: https://youtu.be/dlxmJocptq4.
BATORFI and BOROS joined forces to spread their waste practical experience
ETTU – ITTF Women Coaching Seminar WSA Schwechat 3rd – 5th of June 2016 Organized by ETTU Development Program and led by ETTU Deputy President Ivo-Goran MUNIVRANA and Neven CEGNAR ETTU Development Manager Women Coaches Seminar was held last weekend. The organization was executed in close cooperation with WSA. The main lecturers were Csilla BATORFI and Tamara BOROS who delivered their priceless practical experience and theoretical knowledge about service and backhand topspin. “We’ve had 13 female coaches from 8 countries attending WCS in Schwechat . Our main task was to use all players experience and coaching knowledge and skills of Csilla and Tamara to encourage our female coaches to reflect on two significant subjects in table tennis the service and backhand topspin in all variations ” explained CEGNAR. Coaches have had the opportunity to hear many of the theoretical advices with the practical presentation of numerous exercises (more than 40) in terms of learning technical improvement and method of technical correction of those two mentioned technical elements. “I express my particular pleasure as our three-day coaching seminar took place in a fantastic constructive atmosphere and the modification of the common experiences of all those present coaches” added CEGNAR. At the end of last session of lectures all present coaches were awarded with appropriate certificates of participation in the WCS.
21 Men’s Singles title for Portugal’s Joao GERALDO
2016 ITTF World Tour Slovenia Open in Otocec Japan’s Jun MIZUTANI the top seed he justified his exalted position in the competition by winning the Men’s Singles title at the 2016 ITTF World Tour Slovenia Open in Otocec. At the semi-final stage he beat Korea’s JOO Saehyuk the no.6 seed by the minimum two point margin in the deciding game (11-4 7-11 11-13 9-11 11-6 11-7 14-12) before recording a very similar success in the final. Jun accounted for Chinese Taipei’s CHUANG Chih-Yuan the no.2 seed (11-9 5-11 8-11 11-3 10-12 11-6 11-9) to claim the top prize. Singapore’s FENG Tianwei won the Women’s Singles title. At the final hurdle occupying the second seeded position in the draw she accounted for Korea’s JEON Jihee the no.5 seed to secure the top prize in a hard fought six games contest (11-9 8-11 10-12 11-3 11-5 11-8). Top seeds Portugal’s Joao GERALDO and Hitomi SATO duly justified their billing to win the respective Under 21 Men’s Singles and Under 21 Women’s Singles titles. At the final hurdle Joao GERALDO beat Frenchman Alexandre ROBINOT the no.5 seed (4-11 11-8 11-3 11-8); Hitomi SATO overcame colleague Yui HAMAMOTO the no.4 seed (11-6 11-5 13-11). Runners up the previous week in Zagreb the same fate befell the Korean combination of JEOUNG Youngsik and LEE Sangsu. Once again the top seeds they were beaten at the final hurdle by the second seeded Hong Kong combination of HO Kwan Kit and WONG Chun Ting (11-7 11-9 11-5). The Russian combination of Maria DOLGIKH and Polona MIKHAILOVA emerged as the surprise winners of the Women’s Doubles event. Occupying the fourth seeded position in the competition they withstood a spirited recovery by the top seeded Korean combination of JEON Jihee and YANG Haeun (11-9 11-9 7-11 6-11 11-6).
