Gustavo TSUBOI and Caroline KUMAHARA claiming the men’s & women’s titles respectively at the 2015 ITTF-Latin America Cup Brazil has once again proven itself as the table tennis powerhouse in Latin America with its top players Gustavo TSUBOI and Caroline KUMAHARA claiming the men’s & women’s titles respectively at the 2015 ITTF-Latin America Cup that concluded in Cuba on 31 May 2015. Their victory means that the duo qualify directly to take on the world’s best players from other continents at the prestigious ITTF World Cup’s later in the year. Despite losing the first 2 games in the all-Brazilian finals TSUBOI was able to turn the tide around to defeat the defending champion Cazuo MATSUMOTO 4-2 (8-11 6-11 11-8 13-11 11-7 11-7) to claim his second ITTF-Latin America Cup title after his first victory back in 2011. Delighted about gold the top seed shared “We know each other since we are under 18. We train together and this was the most difficult match I had. Our matches were always close and this time I have to fight back. It was really hard when I am trailing behind and I had to change the rhythm to win.” “It’s a double joy for me because it is also my birthday today. Now I will take some time to enjoy this victory and I will think of the Pan American Games next.” In the women’s finals matchup KUMAHARA successfully defended her crown to score the third continental cup title in her career. She accounted for her compatriot GUI Lin 4-0 (12-10 12-10 11-8 11-2) to seal her victory. The Sao Paulo native expressed “Although it was a 4-0 match it was hard. I began very well in all four games but she fought back making it difficult for me.” “There is always high level table tennis at play at the Latin American Cups and matches are hard from the group phase. I was happy for my performance here and gained confidence for the Pan American Games. This year I haven’t been good not very focused. I wasn’t expecting to be champion but this achievement makes me keep training harder. The Pan American Games are going to be difficult.” The Liebherr 2015 Men’s World Cup will be held in Halmstad Sweden on 16-18 October and the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Sendai Japan on 30 October – 1 November. The ITTF World Cups are amongst the most prestigious event in the world with only the top 18 players qualifying for the event through the continental cups plus the world champion and one wildcard. Qualifications for the 2015 ITTF Men’s & Women’s World Cups: Current World Champion: MA Long (CHN) DING Ning (CHN) NN Table Tennis Club 2015 ITTF-Europe Top 16 Cup: Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) Marcos FREITAS (POR) Panagiotis GIONIS (GRE) LIU Jia (AUT) Petrissa SOLJA (GER) Irene IVANCAN (GER) GAC Group 2015 Asian Cup: XU Xin (CHN) Jun MIZUTANI (JPN) FENG Tianwei (SIN) LIU Shiwen (CHN) K-Sports 2015 ITTF-Oceania Cup: William HENZELL (AUS) LAY Jian Fang (AUS) Double Fish 2015 ITTF-North America Cup: Jimmy BUTLER (USA) ZHANG Mo (CAN) 2015 Latin-America Cup: Gustavo TSUBOI (BRA) Caroline KUMAHARA (BRA)
European trio secured their place at the ITTF Hopes Week & Challenge in Shanghai
Maciej KUBIK Elizabet ABRAMIAN and Sophia KLEE are selected to join the ITTF Hopes Week & Challenge in Shanghai At the end of one more successful week and training in Hopes selection camp in Luxembourg experts gave their evaluation. The camp has been conducted by the coaches: LI Xiaodong XIA Cheng ZHANG Yining Martin OSTERMANN Tamara BOROS and Neven CEGNAR. “Regarding the six criteria and after summarize the points I would like to inform that Maciej KUBIK of Poland Elizabet ABRAMIAN of Russia and Sophia KLEE of Germany are selected to join the ITTF Hopes Week & Challenge in Shanghai” announced ETTU Development Manager TI&S Neven CEGNAR. The full ETTU delegation for this camp is as follows: Oost KAS VAN (NED) Adrien RASSENFOSSE (BEL) Israeli TAL (ISR) Maciej KUBIK (POL) Linda ZADEROVA (CZE) Emilija RILISKYTE (LTU) Elizabet ABRAMIAN (RUS) and Sophia KLEE (GER).
Elke SCHALL-SUSS joined DTTB coaching team
Heike AHLERT: Elke is the perfect person for this position Another member of the golden generation Elke SCHALL-SUSS joined Jörg ROSSKOPF and Jie SCHÖPP as a member of coaching stuff in DTTB. She will work in German table tennis center in Dusseldorf (DTTZ) in charge of the national residential school children training group. The two-time team’s World bronze medalist four-time European champion German Single Champion and five-time Olympian will succeed Jörg BITZIGEIO at the DTTZ who is doing 2 jobs at once at the moment – residential school kids training next to his main task as junior national girls’ coach. “I look forward to the new job. I gained valuable experience working in Hessian Table Tennis Federation” said SCHALL-SUSS who lives already for years in Dusseldorf. “I will try to show the children the way to the high-performance sports.” Heike AHLERT Vice-President of the twelfth-biggest German sports federation stated: “Elke is the perfect person for this position: She will contribute experiences as a former successful national team player as a coach at a German regional association and used to join a residential table tennis school as a child”.
Olimpia-Unia Grudziądz clinched the title in Poland
Olimpia-Unia beat Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki Olimpia-Unia Grudziądz clinched the title in the Men’s Wschodzący Białystok Superliga in Poland. They needed three matches to take gold medals. Olimpia-Unia with players like Kaii YOSHIDA WANG Yang Patryk ZATÓWKA and Bartosz SUCH beat Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki (3:2 2:3 3:1). Kaii YOSHIDA gave hosts the perfect table tennis show and won all his games during this season in Polish Superliga. In first duel in Grodzisk Mazowiecki Olimpia-Unia won by narrow margin 3:2 but ten days later Dartom Bogoria was a little better. Tomasz REDZIMSKI with his players: OH Sang Eun Daniel GÓRAK and Paweł FERTIKOWSKI won also 3:2. In the final match in Grudziądz Yoshida overcame GÓRAK and OH Sang Eun. The third game was won by Bartosz SUCH. Unexpectedly he overcame Oh Sang Eun 3:1. It’s a fourth title for Olimpia-Unia Grudziądz in Polish Men’s Superliga.
Borussia couldn’t finish its work
The ETTU president Ronald KRAMER congratulated the winners accompanied by governor of Orenburg Region Yuri BERG and Russian Presidential aide Igor LEVITIN Borussia had a successful 2014/15 season for sure but not perfect. Bearing in mind how many problems they had in last few seasons even in this one (Patrick FRANZISKA missed four months due to injury as well as Kamal ACHANTA last few weeks) it looks like a nice score: two titles (German Cup and League) and one final (TTCLM). Nevertheless Dusseldorf`s staff is not satisfied after the 3:0 defeat from Russian Fakel Gazproma Orenburg in the second final leg of the Men’s European Champions League. „We are very disappointed” commented Borussia`s manager Andreas PREUSS. „We had a real chance to win the title. This time we had no fortune and we didn’t play our best table tennis. Congratulations to Orenburg”. Bourssia entered the ultimate MECL game with 3:1 (10:6) victory from sold out Düsseldorf’s ARAG CenterCort. Above all Patrick FRANZISKA reached the opening set against Vladimir SAMSONOV but from that moment Russian club dominated. When Dimitrij OVTCHAROV beat Timo BOLL in straight sets it was the clear sign that host team will take its third MECL crown. Of course most people would bet that Panagiotis GIONIS can overcome Alexey SMIRNOV in the third encounter but that was the day when everything went smoothly for Fakel Gazproma who fully deserved their 15th title in just 14 years of its history: 3 MECL 7 Russian League 1 ETTU Cup winner 3 Russian Cup and 1 Russian Super Cup. German champion continues as the most decorated European club (64 titles in total). „Our players couldn’t use their chances they had. So we lost. I don’t find any words at the moment. We played a great season but we couldn’t finish our work” stated his first impressions after the final Borussia`s coach Danny HEISTER. The final TTCLM match attended governor of Orenburg Region Yuri BERG Presidential aide Igor LEVITIN who was appointed in that role by Russian president Vladimir PUTIN the ETTU president Ronald KRAMER and Fakel Gazproma Orenburg president Sergey IVANOV.
Baku 2015 European Games to be screened in New Zealand
Baku 2015 has signed a broadcast deal ensuring that viewers in New Zealand will receive coverage of the inaugural European Games which will take place from 12-28 June. SKY TV in New Zealand becomes the latest in a series of non-European networks to acquire broadcast rights for the Baku 2015 competitions. The deal means that two dedicated 24-hour SKY Sport pop-up channels will carry exclusive footage of the Games across the country for the duration of the event. Mr Simon CLEGG Chief Operating Officer of Baku 2015 said: “This latest agreement with SKY TV confirms the broad appeal which the European Games hold for sport fans everywhere. I am delighted to be welcoming such a respected network to our family of broadcast partners and am sure that viewers in New Zealand will enjoy the competitions next month.” Mr Richard LAST SKY’s Director of Sport added: “We’re constantly trying to offer our customers new and exciting sporting content and the addition of Baku 2015 is a fine example of bringing innovative and different programming to SKY Sport.” New Zealand joins a host of regions outside Europe which have signed up for coverage of the Games including the Americas the Arab world China India Australia and Japan.
Final breakthrough for KTS Tarnobrzeg
Club from Poland beat French Metz in the second leg of the ETTU Cup final Four times runners up in the Women’s ETTU Cup KTS Tarnobrzeg finally clinched the title in the Women’s ETTU Cup. In the second leg of the final Polish club repeated the success from the previous encounter and overcame Metz TT. However this time French club made it harder for the hosts. Tarnobrzeg was stretched to full distance. HAN Ying was the back-bone of the club’s success. She overcame both Yunli SCHREINER and WU Jiaduo after very close matches. Renáta ŠTRBÍKOVÁ maintained her focus and won decisive match against Yunli SCHREINER after previously struggled to find the game for WU JIaduo. LI Qian and FU Yu repeated the result from the opening leg – straight games victory for FU. ETTU Cup final KTS SPAR Zamek Tarnobrzeg – METZ TT 3:2 HAN Ying – Yunli SCHREINER 3:1 (11:2 11:6 7:11 11:5)Renáta ŠTRBÍKOVÁ – WU Jiaduo 1:3 (11:8 12:14 6:11 8:11)LI Qian – FU Yu 0:3 (3:11 7:11 4:11)HAN Ying – WU Jiaduo 3:2 (14:12 11:7 9:11 8:11 13:11) Renáta ŠTRBÍKOVÁ – Yunli SCHREINER 3:0 (11:3 11:8 11:9) First leg may 8thMetz TT -KTS SPAR Zamek Tarnobrzeg 1:3 FU Yu – LI Qian 3:2 (4:11 11:7 9:11 12:10 11:8)WU Jiaduo – HANG Ying 0:3 (6:11 7:11 9:11)Yunli SCHREINER – Renata STRBIKOVA 2:3 (11:6 11:9 6:11 5:11 6:11)FU Yu – HANG Ying 0:3 (5:11 4:11 9:11)
Orenburg clinched its 3rd MECL title
After 3:1 away defeat Russian champion managed to beat Borussia 3:0 at home Fakel Gazproma Orenburg is the 2014/15 Men’s European Champions League! After 3:1 away defeat three weeks ago Russian champion managed to beat Borussia 3:0 in today’s rematch. This is for sure one of the most amazing comebacks in the final MECL clashes so far. One more big fact is that Orenburg did it against ten times European champion and most decorated European clubs ever. Host coach Valery SALABAEV decided to play for all or nothing posting Vladimir SAMSONOV on the first spot in the Orenburg`s line-up. It was the clear sign that the Russians will hunt 3:0 victory instead to calculate with set-ratio in case of 3:1. Vladimir SAMSONOV who improved his individual record on 11 titles prevailed against Patrick FRANZISKA in the opener. Young German took the first game but great Byelorussian responded by three in a row. One of crucial moments appeared in the third set when host managed to take several consecutive points after 5:3 lead of guest. Two best ranked European player met in the second encounter as actual individual champion of Old Continent overcame six times gold medalist of ECH: Dimitrij OVTCHAROV – Timo BOLL 3:0. Host did an impressive turn in the late first set (6:9 11:9) while in the other two controlled the game all the time. This victory brought a big lead for Orenburg but also provided the best individual score for OVTCHAROV (14-2 BOLL 15-3). Finally Alexey SMIRNOV confirmed why he is considered as the best team’s no. 3 player of MECL in last couple of years. Former EURO Top 12 winner defeated Panagiotis GIONIS in five games. Greek did everything he could to extend the match and give a new chance to Timo BOLL but after exciting fourth set (SMIRNOV saved four set balls) he easily lost the ultimate one. This is the 3rd MECL crown for Orenburg who was the champion in 2012 and 2013. In its very first final (2011) they was beaten by Borussia who continues as the most decorated European club ever (64 titles in total: 4 out of it MECL 6 Cup of Champions). Men`s ECL final 2nd leg Fakel Gazproma Orenburg – Borussia Dusseldorf 3:0 Vladimir SAMSONOV – Patrick FRANZISKA 3:1 (7:11 11:5 11:3 11:6) Dimitrij OVTCHAROV – Timo BOLL 3:0 (12:10 11:9 11:7) Alexey SMIRNOV – Panagiotis GIONIS 3:2 (9:11 11:7 11:6 10:12 11:6) Men`s ECL final 1st leg (May 10th) Borussia Dusseldorf – Fakel Gazproma Orenburg 3:1 Timo BOLL – Vladimir SAMSONOV 3:0 (11:3 11:7 14:12) Patrick FRANZISKA – Dimitrij OVTCHAROV 1:3 (2:11 11:6 8:11 7:11) Panagiotis GIONIS – Alexey SMIRNOV 3:1 (11:3 11:5 8:11 11:4) Timo BOLL – Dimitrij OVTCHAROV 3:2 (7:11 11:7 8:11 11:7 12:10)
Borussia targets the Triple!
„We won both Bundesliga and German Cup but we would like to do the last step in Champions League on Friday to win the Triple” stressed Borussia`s manager Andreas PREUSS Borussia Dusseldorf is determined to overleap its last hurdle and repeat the history winning its new Triple Crown but Fakel Gazproma Orenburg is not afraid by 3:1 advantage of German club in the first leg of 2014/15 MECL final. The returning final match will be held tomorrow (13h20 CET live on LAOLA1.tv) on Russian soil. „We played a great year in Bundesliga and German Cup and we won the Double. But we would like to do the last step in Champions League on Friday to win the Triple” stressed Bprussia`s manager Andreas PREUSS. „This would be the high point of an incredible season. Orenburg is the highest ranked team with great players OVTCHAROV and SAMSONOV. They are able to beat us and to win the title too. So we have to play extreme concentrated and with full power.” Coach Danny HEISTER is sure that recent victory in German League final against Fulda will put a good energy inside the team: „I hope that we can take the positive result of winning the German Bundesliga last Sunday to Orenburg. Our whole team our whole club is willing to make history.” Youngest player in Borussia`s line-up Patrick FRANZISKA added: „We know that the match in Orenburg will be tough and the host team will fight for every ball. Their fans will make noise and it will be a special atmosphere in the hall. But it´s our chance to win the Triple which you don’t get often. It would be the first time for me Panos (GIONIS) and Kamal (ACHANTA) to win Champions League and to win this historical Triple.”
Welcome to the new ETTU Website!
Welcome to the completely new website of the European Table Tennis Union. I am very proud to present it to you. You will see many differences compared to the former website. The navigation structure has changed but most important is that the site has many more interactive opportunities. Of course the main news is still at the core of ETTU.ORG but you will see many more possibilities to watch table tennis directly on your devices. Not just the European Championships but also quite extensively the Table Tennis Champions Leagues. The philosophy behind the site is that we want to contribute to intensifying the connection between our events and our players and their fans and followers thus creating a European Table Tennis Community including all associations clubs and individuals. We are grateful to the experts from LAOLA1 and tsmg for having guided us and who have worked very hard to get our new website ‘on air’ in time. Compliments are of course always welcome but if we want this website to get better over the time please do not hesitate to inform us of errors and possible mistakes you find or run into. As you will see a special Member Area for which our associations will receive a login and password. Here our member associations will be able to find all relevant documents relating to our Congresses etc. For efficiency reasons in this member area there is a special tab for the Executive Board members where only EB members have access to information and documents that have not yet reached a state of publication. In the member area you will also find our online entry system for our events. This welcome message will stay on this homepage for a limited period of time. Later you will find our real news headers as you were used to. Please look around on this website and enjoy what you find! You can send your remarks relating to this new website to Ms. Ana Antic mail address: ana.antic.ettu@gmail.com. Ronald Kramer President
