Baku 2015 European Games has today signed a broadcast deal to ensure the inaugural event will be broadcast in Italy. Leading broadcaster Sky Italia will screen live coverage and highlights across its sports channels as well as providing extensive coverag Baku 2015 European Games has today signed a broadcast deal to ensure the inaugural event will be broadcast in Italy. Leading broadcaster Sky Italia will screen live coverage and highlights across its sports channels as well as providing extensive coverage on Sky Go. The station has secured exclusive rights in the country and will also promote the Games via its popular Sky Sport 24 news channel to increase awareness and share the excitement of the inaugural European Games. Mr Simon CLEGG Chief Operating Officer of Baku 2015 said: “We are very pleased to have agreed this deal with Sky Italia to guarantee extensive coverage of the European Games in Italy. As one of the continent’s most successful sporting nations we are expecting Italy to send a very strong team to Baku 2015 in pursuit of gold medals and glory.” Founded in 2003 Sky Italia has 4.7 million subscribers and an audience of more than 13 million viewers in the country and is considered one of Europe’s most respected sports broadcasters. The company broadcast the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games and also hold the rights for the Italy’s premier football competition Serie A as well as the Bundesliga UEFA Champions League and the European Qualifiers. Mr Matteo MAMMÌ Director of Sport Rights Programming and Production at Sky Italia said: “The first European Games will be a brilliant celebration of sport enjoyed by the whole continent and we are very proud to be providing coverage in our country. We are very much looking forward to a thrilling 17 days of competition in Baku and bringing the best of all the action to our subscribers.” Mr Giovanni MALAGÒ President of the Italian National Olympic Committee said: “We are delighted that the first European Games will be available for sports fans to view on the leading Italian TV broadcaster as well as its online and mobile platforms. This is great news for our athletes and millions of supporters and I am sure this will help make Baku 2015 a success in Italy.” Mr Charlie WIJERATNA Commercial Director of Baku 2015 added: “International broadcast sales are progressing very well and it is fantastic that we have signed this agreement to broadcast the Games with such a renowned channel as Sky Italia. The deal is another success for Baku 2015 and reflects the continued interest we are receiving from major broadcasters around the world. There will be more announcements relating to European countries in the coming months as we convert the deals we have agreed in principle into long-form contracts.”
TT stars to be honored at World’s tallest building
The DUBAI 2014 ITTF Star Awards will take place at the Armani Hotel at the base of the world’s tallest building the Burj Khalifa which is a fitting location to honor the world’s best players on 7 January 2015. The winners who will be annou The DUBAI 2014 ITTF Star Awards will take place at the Armani Hotel at the base of the world’s tallest building the Burj Khalifa which is a fitting location to honor the world’s best players on 7 January 2015. The winners who will be announced tomorrow are determined by the Fans’ votes combined with judging by an expert panel including their peers and members of the media. At the Armani Hotel all eyes will be on who will be the Male and Female Table Tennis Stars! As last year’s winners ZHANG Jike (CHN) and LI Xiaoxia (CHN) were not nominated two new players will definitely emerge as the 2014 Table Tennis stars. Will the African sensation Quadri ARUNA (NGR) be able to beat the more established stars of XU Xin (CHN) FAN Zhendong (CHN) and Marcos FREITAS (POR) to make history for Africa? Will three World Tour victories for FENG Tianwei (SIN) be enough to overcome the strong competition from the other female table tennis star nominees of Kasumi ISHIKAWA (JPN) DING Ning (CHN) and LIU Shiwen (CHN)? The 2014 edition will include two new awards; the Table Tennis Star Coach and the Fair Play Star which rewards an act of Fair Play in the 2014 season. To calm the nerves the top Chinese table tennis players XU Xin MA Long ZHANG Jike DING Ning LIU Shiwen and LI Xiaoxia joined the huge crowds gathered at Dubai Mall today to play at the inaugural Ping Pong Dubai Festival. The Dubai-sponsored Chinese National Table Tennis Team were the star attraction of the Festival hosting master classes and meeting fans during the one-day event at Dubai Ice Rink. After the glitzy ITTF Star Awards and fun-filled Ping Pong Dubai Festival it is back to competitions at the 2015 ITTF World Team Cup where 12 top National teams will be fighting for the prestigious title of World Team Cup champions from 8 to 11 January 2015 at the Al Nasr Sports Club in Dubai. There will be seven awards handed out to the world’s best players: Male Table Tennis Star presented by Ping Pong Dubai Female Table Tennis Star presented by Nittaku Male Para Table Tennis Star presented by Tinsue Female Para Table Tennis Star presented by Stag International Table Tennis Star Point presented by DHS Table Tennis Star Coach presented by Butterfly Fair Play Star
China sent top guns in Dubai
For the best World players season starts tomorow in Dubai. The 2015 World Team Cup will gather 12 teams in each of the Men’s and Women’s events; 6 continental teams 5 teams who finished in the highest positions at the ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Table Tennis For the best World players season starts tomorow in Dubai. The 2015 World Team Cup will gather 12 teams in each of the Men’s and Women’s events; 6 continental teams 5 teams who finished in the highest positions at the ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships and one team from the host association. The playing format is the Olympic format which will add extra interest in the lead in to Rio 2016. Reigning champions China wants to defend the title won at home soil in 2013 so LIU Guoliang sent his best players. Germany and Japan decided to give their stars a break. The China’s Men Team consists of the top 4 players in the latest World Ranking list: ZHANG Jike MA Long XU Xin FAN Zhendong and FANG Bo. Their main chalengers from the Old Continent team of Germany will compete without Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and Timo BOLL. In Dubai Bastian STEGER Steffen MENGEL Ruwen FILUS and Ricardo WALTHER will be on duty. It will not be the case with European Champions. Team of Portugal arrived with top players: Marcos FREITAS Tiago APOLONIA Joao MONTEIRO and Joao GERALDO. Austria will be represented by Robert GARDOS CHEN Weixing Stefan FEGERL and Daniel HABESOHN. In Women’s event Germany counts on Petrissa SOLJA Kristin SILBEREISEN Irene IVANCAN and Sabine WINTER whilst for Romania will play Elizabeta SAMARA Bernadette SZOCS Camelia POSTOACA and young Adina DIACONU.
World Team Cup opens new season
2015 World Team Cup starts this Thursday in the Al-Nasr Sports Club in Dubai. It is the second time that the event has been staged in the United Arab Emirates; in late September and early October 2010 the Gulf state was the home for the World Team Classic 2015 World Team Cup starts this Thursday in the Al-Nasr Sports Club in Dubai. It is the second time that the event has been staged in the United Arab Emirates; in late September and early October 2010 the Gulf state was the home for the World Team Classic. An overall prize fund of US$ 270 000 quaranties good fighting spirit. There are 12 teams in each of the Men’s and Women’s events. Six continental teams five teams not selected as the continental team who finished in the highest positions at the ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships plus one team from the host association. Play takes place in two stages; in the initial phase there are four groups with three teams in each group; teams in first and second places in each group advance to the quarter-finals where proceedings are conducted on a knock-out basis. The invited teams are as follows: Men (Continental Champions): China Portugal Canada Brazil Egypt Australia Men (World Championships): Germany Chinese Taipei Japan Austria Korea Men (Host Association): United Arab Emirates Women (Continental Champions): China Germany Canada Brazil Egypt Australia Women (World Championships): Japan Hong Kong Singapore DPR Korea Romania Women (Host Association): United Arab Emirates
ITTF-Europe Top-16 Cup list of participants announced
The list of participants at the forthcoming 2015 NN Table Tennis Club ITTF-Europe Top-16 Cup is finalized. The list of invited players went under some changes; Joao MONTEIRO of Portugal and Par GERELL of Sweden will replace Dane Michael MAZE and Romania’s The list of participants at the forthcoming 2015 NN Table Tennis Club ITTF-Europe Top-16 Cup is finalized. The list of invited players went under some changes; Joao MONTEIRO of Portugal and Par GERELL of Sweden will replace Dane Michael MAZE and Romania’s Adrian CRISAN. In women’s category Daniela DODEAN MONTEIRO of Romania is the missing name alongside Viktoria PAVLOVICH of Belarus. They will be replaced by substitutes Polina MIKHAILOVA of Russia and Bernadette SZOCS of Romania. Portugal’s Marcos FREITAS and Austria’s LIU Jia the winners in Lausanne just over of one year ago will defend their titles. Marcos is third seed in men’s Event. At the top of the list is Dimitrij OVTCHAROV of Germany. OVTCHAROV won the Men’s title in 2012 in Villeurbanne. Seeded no. two is his compatriot Timo BOLL winner of this prestigious event in five occasions. At position no. four is Vladimir SAMSONOV of Belarus four times winner and eight times runner up followed by Tiago APOLONIA of Portugal. APOLONIA’s best result so far is 9th place. The list goes on with Patrick BAUM of Germany Panagiotis GIONIS of Greece Andrej GACINA of Croatia Robert GARDOS of Austria Bastian STEGER of Germany Kristia KARLSSON of Sweden Simon GAUZY of France Adrien MATTENET of France Joao MONTEIRO Par GERELL and Fahrad ISMAYLOV of Azerbaijan. Defending champion LIU JIa topping the women’s list. At he position no. two is Hungary’s Georgina POTA who played at the Top 12 in 2005 for a first time. Last year she was 6th. Elizabeta SAMARA of Romania also played last year but failed to reach the knock out stage. The winner of the Top 12 in Liege 2011 Dusseldorf 2010 Frankfurt 2008 Arezzo 2007 LI Jiao of Netherlands will be on duty again in Baku. At the list are also: HU Melek of Turkey WU JIaduo of Germany LI JIe of Netherlands Petrissa SOLJA of Germany Iveta VACENOVSKA of Czrch republic Kristin SILBEREISEN of germany Irene IVANCAN of germany Margaryta PESOTSKA of Ukraine LI Qian of Poland Polina MIKHAILOVA Bernadette SZOCS and Maryam IMANOVA of Azerbaijan. Play in each event takes place in two stages. Round-robin group matches in the first stage followed by a progressive knockout draw to decide the first 8 (eight) positions. Group- stage will be played best of 5 games. From quarter-finals all matches and all position matches will be played best of 7 games. Losers of the quarter-finals will play for positions 5-8 respectively for positions 5-6 and for positions 7-8. Losers of the semi-finals shall play each other for 3rd place and 4thplace. Positions 9-12 will not be played and players finishing 3rd in each group will have the same final position (9th – 12th place). Position 13-16 will not be played and players finishing 4th in each group will have same final position (13th – 16th place). First three players in both events will be qualified for 2015 ITTF World Cups with limit of two players per Association.
ITTF announce Male and Female Para Star nominees
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has announced the nominees for the Male and Female Para Star which will be announced at the Dubai 2014 ITTF Star Awards in Dubai on 7 January 2015. The second edition of the ITTF Star Awards will take place The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has announced the nominees for the Male and Female Para Star which will be announced at the Dubai 2014 ITTF Star Awards in Dubai on 7 January 2015. The second edition of the ITTF Star Awards will take place at the Armani Hotel at the base of the world’s tallest building the Burj KHALIFA which is a fitting location to honour the world’s best table tennis players. The nominees in the running to be crowned a 2014 Table Tennis Star are: Female Para Table Tennis Star presented by Stag • Sandra PAOVIC (CRO) – World number one in Women’s Class 6 2014 Para Table Tennis World Championships Class 6 Women’s Singles winner; • MAO Jingdian (CHN)- World number two in Women’s Class 8 2014 Asian Para Games Class 8 Women’s Singles & Class 6-8 Women’s Teams winner 2014 Para Table Tennis World Championships Class 8 Women’s Singles & Class 6-8 Women’s Teams winner; • Melissa TAPPER (AUS)- World number six in Women’s Class 10 2014 Para Table Tennis World Championships Class 10 Women’s Singles bronze medalist. Male Para Table Tennis Star presented by Tinsue • Alvaro VALERA (ESP)- World number one in Men’s Class 6 2014 Para Table Tennis World Championships Class 6 Men’s Singles & Class 6-7 Men’s Team winner; • Holger NIKELIS (GER)- World number two in Men’s Class 1 2014 Para Table Tennis World Championships Class 1 Men’s Singles bronze medalist & Class 1 Men’s Teams silver medalist; • Nesim TURAN (TUR)- World number three in Men’s Class 4 2014 Para Table Tennis World Championships Class 4 Men’s Singles winner & Class 5 Men’s Teams silver medalist. Germany’s Volker ZIEGLER has also been shortlisted for Star Coach presented by Butterfly alongside China’s Kong Linghui and Portugal’s Pedro Rufino. ZIEGLER took over as head coach of the German Para Table Tennis National Team in 2013 and since then Germany has doubled up the amount of medals from four (comparing from last World Championship 2010 and Paralympics games 2012) to eight medals at this year’s Para World Championship.
Successful course and camp in Plovdiv
The Olympic Solidarity ITTF Level 2 course & High Performance Training camp was held in Plovdiv Bulgaria (from 1 -11 of December 2014) under auspices of Olympic Solidarity and ETTU/ITTF Development programs with participation of 18 coaches (17 Bulgar The Olympic Solidarity ITTF Level 2 course & High Performance Training camp was held in Plovdiv Bulgaria (from 1 -11 of December 2014) under auspices of Olympic Solidarity and ETTU/ITTF Development programs with participation of 18 coaches (17 Bulgarian and 1 female coach from Georgia). In 2012 Bulgarian Table Tennis Federation celebrated 80 years since was founded. Bulgaria had produced good European players as Daniela GERGELTCHEVA Asja KOSABOVA and many others who were playing for different countries: Konstantin LENGEROV Martin BRATANOV Nokoleta STEFANOVA. The Course was conducted in Russian and Croatian languages that was very useful for better explanation the topics of the Course. Same like in past the Course was conducted in Russian with additional reading and studding the ACM which all participants have in English. Practical and theory sessions were combined with video and demonstration sessions. The venue was Stoyanstroy Club with 8 table tennis tables more then 300 balls containers all necessaries requisites were provide including seating area with projector screen laptop white board snacks coffee water nothing where missing. Once again members of Stoyanstroy lead by Stojan SARIEV and Ani SARIEVA showed great co-operation and full involvement in all organisation details. Under umbrella of Olympic Solidarity and with great interest of Bulgarian Table Tennis Federation leading by Stefan KITOV the course was successful. This course was not easy in many aspects because a lot of variation of technical strokes also because of English language of the Advanced Coaching Manual but the final result was very good: All coaches passed successful. Now they have to complete with 50 hours of practice with 5 hours of supervising to become ITTF accredited coaches. It was very appreciated the interest and participation in this Course of all coaches but three of them were make really a lot of efforts to assist this Course: 1. Nino NINOSHVILI was coming from Tbilisi / Georgia; she was a very successful participant on ITTF-PTT Level 1 Course in Tbilisi in 2012 2. Ivo YAKIMOV come from France where he was player and now working as a coach in Sent-Etien 3. Aneliya KAROVA the current Bulgarian Champion and Senior national team player have to find time between French league matches was not easy task for her because she combine her coaching work in Panagurishte Table Tennis Center with very active playing career. The successful ITTF Level 2 Course was followed by High Performance Training camp from 7 – 11 of December in the same hall of Stoyanstroy Table Tennis Centre with participation of 16 young players from 12 -18 years 8 from them were girls The players presented a lot of energy full attention. Also 12 coaches from the Course where working on this training camp so this was very good idea from Bulgarian Table Tennis Federation to make possible combine Course with Training camp.
Luxembourg invites players for the eighth time
The Luxembourg Table Tennis Association will organize the 8th Luxembourg Open Championships which will be held at the “Centre National Sportif et Culturel” at Luxembourg-Kirchberg. The Luxembourg Open Table Tennis Championships is officially recognized by The Luxembourg Table Tennis Association will organize the 8th Luxembourg Open Championships which will be held at the “Centre National Sportif et Culturel” at Luxembourg-Kirchberg. The Luxembourg Open Table Tennis Championships is officially recognized by the ITTF and all matches will be taken into account for the World Rankings. The Single Events will be played according to the progressive knock-out system including round robin at the end up to determine a final ranking for each player. The Team Events’ matches (Men and Women) will be played with teams of 2 players according to a “reduced Corbillon-Cup system” with 2 single matches ( A1 against B1 and A2 against B2 ) and 1 double match which shall however be played only if the score after the two single matches will be 1:1. A maximum of 30 men’s teams and 24 women’s teams can be accepted for the Team Events. Deadlines for Preliminary entry is March 4th 2015 final entry March 25th 2015. Prospectus and entry forms available since now.
Borussia Dusseldorf clinched 23rd Cup
Borussia Dusseldorf is the winner of the Germany’s LIEBHERR Cup 2014/2015. In the final in Fulda Borussia Dusseldorf justified their supremacy and defended the crown. Borussia beat TTC RhönSprudel Fulda to secure 23rd Cup success in the Düsseldorf club’ Borussia Dusseldorf is the winner of the Germany’s LIEBHERR Cup 2014/2015. In the final in Fulda Borussia Dusseldorf justified their supremacy and defended the crown. Borussia beat TTC RhönSprudel Fulda to secure 23rd Cup success in the Düsseldorf club’s history. It is third year in the row that those two clubs played against each other in the ultimate stage of the Cup Final: TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell – Borussia Düsseldorf 2:3 WANG Xi – Kamal ACHANTA 3:0 (11:4 11:6 11:07) Ruwen FILUS – Timo BOLL 0:3 (5:11 6:11 2:11) Christian SUSS – Panagiotis GIONIS 3:2 (6:11 11:8 11:8 8:11 11:9) WANG Xi – Timo BOLL 0:3 (8:11 4:11 11:13) Ruwen FILUS – Kamal ACHANTA (6:11 9:11 9:11) Semi finals 1. FC Saarbrücken TT – TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell 2:3 Tiago APOLONIA – Ruwen FILUS 1:3 (9:11 11:5 8:11 10:12) Adrien MATTENET – WANG Xi 2:3 (16:18 5:11 11:9 12:10 6:11) Bojan TOKIC – Christian SUSS 3:1 (11:7 11:3 6:11 11:8) Tiago APOLONIA – WANG Xi 3:2 (11:8 5:11 9:11 11:7 12:10) Adrien MATTENET – Ruwen FILUS 2:3 (11:13 11:4 11:13 12:10 6:11) SV Werder Bremen – Borussia Düsseldorf 0:3 Bastian STEGER – Panagiotis GIONIS 2:3 (15:13 10:12 8:11 11:6 7:11) Hunor SZOCS – Timo BOLL 1:3 (11:5 4:11 3:11 3:11) Constantin CIOTI – Kamal ACHANTA 0:3 (3:11 9:11 10:12)
Borussia Düsseldorf reached German Cup’s semis
In the semi final of the German Cup tomorrow in Fulda Borussia Düsseldorf will meet SV Werder Bremen whilst 1. FC Saarbrücken TT will play against TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell. Title holders Borussia Düsseldorf and 1. FC Saarbrücken TT concluded the In the semi final of the German Cup tomorrow in Fulda Borussia Düsseldorf will meet SV Werder Bremen whilst 1. FC Saarbrücken TT will play against TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell. Title holders Borussia Düsseldorf and 1. FC Saarbrücken TT concluded their quarterfinal duels with straight matches victories. Timo BOLL lost his opening game against Bohumil VOZICKY and he admitted that he needed time to adapt to VOZICKYs style. However when he settled into the rhythm it was one way street for Borussia. Lars HIELSCHER put Panagiotis GIONIS under pressure in the second game but not enough to steal that game. In the duel between TTC indeland Jülich and 1. FC Saarbrücken the trio of Bojan TOKIC Tiago APOLONIA and Adrien MATTENET showed no mercy. Borussia Düsseldorf – Post SV Mühlhausen 3:0 Timo BOLL – Bohumil VOZICKY 3:1 (8:11 11:7 11:9 11:6) Panagiotis GIONIS – Lars HIELSCHER 3:0 (11:7 12:10 11:8) Sharath ACHANTA – Michal BARDON 3:1 (11:2 11:07 10:12 11:7) SV Werder Bremen – TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau 3:1 Bastian STEGER – Jonathan GROTH 3:1 (11:7 8:11 11:8 13:11) Constantin CIOTI – Andrej GACINA 2:3 (4:11 7:11 11:2 11:9 8:11) Hunor SZÖCS – Alberto MINO 3:2 (12:10 11:6 5:11 9:11 11:5) Bastian STEGER – Andrej GACINA 3:1 (7:11 11:7 11:8 11:6)
