Best German players will fight for the titles from Friday to Sunday (March 3-5th)     The 85th edition of German National Championships will be held from Friday to Sunday (March 3-5th) at BROSE ARENA in the city of Bamberg place where basketball club Brose Bamberg plays its Euroleague matches. Two times runner-up of ITTF LIEBHERR European Championships Patrick BAUM and Kristin SILBEREISEN are defending champions but other players are toping the seeding lists in both men`s and women`s events.   Main candidates for the gold in Men`s Singles Event are record holder ten times winner Timo BOLL (World No. 10) and 2014 champion Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (World No. 5) whilst three names are considered as favorites in the Women`s Singles Event: HAN Ying (World No. 6) the 2015 winner Petrissa SOLJA (World No. 15) and double consecutive champion (2013 2014) SHAN Xiaona (World No. 22).   Last year in Bielefeld BAUM and SILBEREISEN beat in the final games Steffen MENGEL and Sabine WINTER respectively. It was very first BAUM`s title while SILBEREISEN repeated her biggest success from 2010.   Young Kilian ORT has a special motivation. He is a local hero playing for Klub Koenigshofen in the same region. The 20-year-old hopes for a medal win. He won many medals on strong international junior tournaments in the last four years including gold at GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour Hungary Open (Challenge).   Bamberg hosts third time German National Championships after 2011 (singles champions Bastian STEGER and ZHENQI Barthel) and 2013 (Steffen MENGEL and SHAN Xiaona).   In the last ten years just one player in both men`s and women`s competition managed to defend their titles: Bastian STEGER (2011 2012) and SHAN Xiaona (2013 2014).   Regarding doubles events actual champions are Ruwen FILUS/Ricardo WALTHER (Men`s Doubles) and Chantal MANTZ/WAN Yuan (Women`s).   Results information during championships: www.tischtennis.de

National closed Championship of Austria   This weekend (4th and 5th of March) the 87. National closed Championship of Austria will be held in University Sport Center Salzburg/Rif in the city of Hallein.   Title-Holder in Women’s Single is 15-times-winner LIU Jia and her toughest adversary will be clubmate Sofia POLCANOVA who played in good shap last weeks. At the men’s single main favourits are Stefan FEGERL and Daniel HABESOHN both performing very well in German league this season.   Robert GARDOS had to withdraw due the injury. He was injured at the Indian Open last week. Last year Dominique PLATTNER was the star of the show. In absence of the top-stars who had played the Olympic qualification tournament at same time he secured the title surprisingly.   Finals are scheduled at Sunday beginning from 1.30 pm.   Title-holders:   Men’s Single Dominique PLATTNER Women’s Single: LIU Jia Men’s Double: Bernhard KINZ-PRESSLMAYER / Simon PFEFFER Women’s Double: LI Qiangbing/Jessica ZLATILOVA Mixed: Lena PROMBERGER/Bernhard KINZ-PRESSLMAYER

The 2017 Swiss Championships will be held this weekend in the city of Biel/Bienne   Individual national championships of Switzerland will be held this weekend (March 4-5th) in the city Biel/Bienne as both reigning champions in main events will try to defend their titles.   Defending champion in Men`s Singles Event is 20-year-old Lionel WEBER actual No. 311. at ITTF World ranking list. Other strong title pretenders are his coeval Elia SCHMID (World No. 287) the champion from 2014 as well as Nicolas CHAMPOD (No. 420).   Regarding women`s competition World No. 105 Rachel MORET defends the title. This 27-year-old player of French club Entente Pongiste Isséenne will competee for her fifht national crown.   Two more title pretenders in women`s singles event are also members of French clubs Rahel ASCHWANDEN (World No. 211 club SUS TT Schiltigheim) and Céline REUST (World No. 365 club CTT Nîmes). ASCHWANDEN is 2013 Swiss champion whilst REUST has two bronze medal from 2013 and 2016.   Competition will be opened by Mixed Doubles Event on March 4th (11h00). Final matches in singles events are schedulled for March 5th at 14h30 (Women) and 15h15 (Men).

Polish National Table Tennis Championships 2017   The Polish National Table Tennis Championships 2017 will take place from the 3rd to 5th March 2017 in the Częstochowa Arena Częstochowa. For the fourth time in the history Polish National Table Tennis Championships will be held in Częstochowa previously in 1938 1950 and 1989.   Finals of Mixed Doubles Women’s Doubles Men’s Doubles Women’s Singles and Men’s Singles are scheduled for Sunday.   In Women’s Singles main favourites are Li QIAN Natalia PARTYKA and Katarzyna GRZYBOWSKA-FRANC whilst in Men’s Singles Jakub DYJAS Zeng Yi WANG and Daniel GÓRAK are among main contenders.   Order of Play (Sunday – 5th March 2017): 10:00 Mixed Doubles – Final 10:50 Women’s Doubles – Final 11:40 Men’s Doubles – Final 12:30 Women’s Singles – Final 13:20 Men’s Singles – Final   Last year’s champions: MS: Tomasz LEWANDOWSKI WS: LI QIAN MD: Jakub DYJAS/Daniel GORAK WD: Natalia PARTYKA/Katarzyna GRZYBOWSKA XD: Konrad KULPA/Natalia BAJOR

National Championship of Bosnia and Herzegovina   This year the National Championship of Bosnia and Herzegovina will take place in Jablanica a small city near Sarajevo at 4th and 5th of March. We expect a lot of man players like every year. The main favorites are Emina HADZIAHMETOVIC who is already national champion title holder for last 8 years and in Man’s Singles main favorite is Armin ALICIC.   Last year the winer in man singels was Admir DURANSPAHIC.

26th Slovenian National table tennis championships   The small town of Puconci in the Prekmurje region near the Slovenian-Hungarian border will host the 26th Slovenian National table tennis championships on March 4th and 5th 2017. With the absence of Slovenia’s finest Bojan TOKIC it looks like the youngsters are set to create more history.   Deni KOZUL bronze medal holder in singles at the recently concluded inaugural European U-21 Table Tennis Championships alongside Darko JORGIC is the defending champion and will look to repeat the success in PUCONCI. JORGIC has enjoyed more success on the international level and even held the top spot on the European under-18 rankings for a few months. Currently ranked 138th in the World he’s the favourite to clinch his first senior title. Alongside KOZUL Jan ZIBRAT a three-time former champion will be looking to stop the trend and get the better of JORGIC and KOZUL who have eclipsed him in the last couple of seasons. ZIBRAT was struggling with injuries earlier in the season and hasn’t really fulfilled his potential after winning a bronze medal at the 2010 EYC in Istanbul.   In women’s singles it’s difficult to look past the three-time reigning champion Manca FAJMUT and Slovenia’s current number 1 Alex GALIC who has worked extremely hard to reach the 123rd place on February’s ITTF world ranking. GALIC has been known to struggle on the national level and has never really shown her full potential. She’ll be hoping to put those memories behind and grab her first national singles title. Tamara PAVCNIK and Ana TOFANT will also have their say both having caused the main favourites some problems in the past.   KOZUL and ZIBRAT will defend their doubles title and will be looking to win for the third time in a row. Twins Zala and Nika VERONIK are the defending champions in women’s doubles while Uroš SLATINSEK and Manca FAJMUT won the mixed-doubles title 12 months ago.   With World Table Tennis Championships just around the corner the stakes will be even higher. National captains Jože URH and Vesna OJSTERSEK will be following the event closely in order to decide who will be representing Slovenia in Düsseldorf.

Welsh National Championships 2017   Charlotte CAREY is hoping to add to her 2017 trophy cabinet and retain the National Women’s Championships cup when all the Welsh stars come together this weekend in Cardiff’s National Sports Centre at Sophia Gardens.   The highly world ranked Ebbw VALE left hander will face a tough match against the 2015 winner Chloe THOMAS who is also her team mate when the women do battle against the rest of the World. Chloe who plays in Sweden is from  the same region as Charlotte so both plays know each others game well.   Other women who will want to crash the party are Beth ROBERTS Beth RICHARDS Lara WHITTON and Anna HURSEY. The latter a 10 year old powerhouse has been select along with Charlotte and Chloe to face Kosovo a few days later.  Missing are 3 highly ranked players in Megan PHILLIPS Angharad PHILLIPS and kate ROBERTS who are all taking breaks to focus on their studies at present.   The Men’s event will see 2015 Champion Daniel O’CONNELL back as number 1 seed. This year the Cardiff City TTC player will face the 2016 R/up Callum Evans Polish born but Cardiff resident Wiktor Dzwonowski and Josh Stacey. All of them have a chance to lift the cup come Sunday afternoon.   Events on show along with the Men and Women singles will be the Over 40s Over 50s Over 60s and O70s Opens. The U21 men and women plus the Junior Cadet U13 and U11 competitions. Junior Senior Vets and Mixed Doubles also feature for the athletes who dare to try.   Other Players to watch out for are Cade SHORT Joseph ROBERTS Louie EVANS Marc CASTRO Jamie-Lee HARLEY Grace CLEMENT and Evan O’CONNOR.   Entry to Sport Wales National Centre is free all weekend with play starting at 9:00 both days.

Sweden National Championships   Sweden National Championships will be played in Halmstad Arena Halmstad. In this venue the World Championships will be played in 2018. The competition will be held from March 2nd to 5th . Finals of men’s Singles Event and the Women’s Singles will be played 14.30 and 15.30 local time on Sunday.   Among the favorites listed at the this year’s championships are Kristian KARLSSON and Mattias KARLSSON Matilda EKHOLM… In Under 21 category Anton KÄLLBERG and Linda BERGSTRÖM are main contenders to the titles in their respective men’s and Women’s Events.     Last year’s champions:   MS: Jon PERSSON WS: LI Fen MD: Kristian KARLSSON/Mattias KARLSSON WD: LI Fen/Caroline TANSKA XD: Pär GERELL/Michaela KARLSSON