In Stockholm’s Eriksdalshallen the battles at the at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Swedish Open reached second phase. The qualifications concluded with few upsets. In Group one in Women’s Singles event Naomi OWEN of Wales beat Japan’s Shiho MATSUDAIR In Stockholm’s Eriksdalshallen the battles at the at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Swedish Open reached second phase. The qualifications concluded with few upsets. In Group one in Women’s Singles event Naomi OWEN of Wales beat Japan’s Shiho MATSUDAIRA the highest World ranked player in the qualification stage of the Women’s Singles event in five games to secure the top spot and place in the main draw. Also in Group 10 Mercedes NAGYVARADI of Hungary upset the order and overcame Haruka SAKAI of Japan for the place among top 32. Laura PFEFER of France followed the same path. She accounted for Yulia PROKHOROVA of Russia. There were successes for the host nation’s LI Fen Russia’s Polina MIKHAILOVA Serbia’s Ana-Maria ERDELJI and Carole GRUNDISCH of France; all posted reasonably comfortable victories to complete their group stage matches unbeaten and thus reserve main draw places. In Men’s Singles Event the host nation’s Simon ARVIDSSON was the man in form. Listed at no.396 on the current Men’s World Rankings he beat Thomas Le BRETON of France named at no.185 in five games to secure first position in the group and a place in the main draw. His compatriot Victor BRODD joined him after victory over Admir DURANSPAHIC of Bosnia and Herzegovina alongside Harald ANDERSSON. Swede beat Cedric NUYTINIC of Belgium. Russia’s Fedor KUZMIN secured first place in his group by beating England’s David MCBEATH Ukraine’s Kou LEI overcame Monaco’s Anthony PERETTI .
BERGSTRÖM and HEDLUND took advantage of home soil
At the opening day at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Swedish Open in Stockholm the host nation’s Linda BERGSTRÖM was the player to cause the biggest surprise in the qualification stage of the Women’s Singles event. Listed at no.367 on the Women’s Worl At the opening day at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Swedish Open in Stockholm the host nation’s Linda BERGSTRÖM was the player to cause the biggest surprise in the qualification stage of the Women’s Singles event. Listed at no.367 on the Women’s World Rankings she beat Japan’s Shiho MATSUDAIRA named at no.76 in five games; a meritorious win especially when taken into consideration that Shiho MATSUDAIRA is the highest World ranked player in action in the first phase of the Women’s Singles event. However the efforts of the 18 year old defender who represents the Stockholm based Ångby Club were in vain. Earlier in the day she lost against Naomi OWEN of Wales. China’s GU Ruochen beat Russia’s Valentina SABATOVA Yuka ISHIGAKI defeated Pauline CHASSELIN of France; whilst Spain’s Sara RAMIREZ accounted for Sweden’s Josefin LUND and the latter’s colleague LI Fen the European champion overcame Russia’s Svetlana MOKHNACHEVA. In men’s Singles Event Jesper HEDLUND of Sweden ranked at the position no. 605 in the World beat World’s number 172 LEE Chia Sheng of Taipei whilst in all other groups favorites prevailed.
World Tour comes to a conclusion in Stockholm
Tournaments on the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour come to a conclusion in Stockholm with the staging of the Swedish Open; proceedings start on Wednesday 27th November and conclude on Sunday 1st December. It is a tournament that has a long and distinguishe Tournaments on the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour come to a conclusion in Stockholm with the staging of the Swedish Open; proceedings start on Wednesday 27th November and conclude on Sunday 1st December. It is a tournament that has a long and distinguished history; it has stood the test of time with many of the great names of the sport having been crowned champions at the prestigious event. In 1954 almost 60 years ago the winner of the Men’s Singles title was Zarko DOLINAR in those days representing Yugoslavia; in the final he beat Sweden’s very own Tage FLISBERG to arrest the title. This year the tournament will gather many famous names once again. Winner of the Men’s Singles event in Poland and Germany China’s 16 year-old FAN Zhendong returns to international action at Swedish Open. He is the third seed in the Men’s Singles event behind compatriots XU Xin and YAN An. However more pertinently he will be competing in his fifth GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour tournament of the year and by simply being present in Stockholm he will qualify for an invitation to the US$ 1 000 000 Grand Finals to be staged in Dubai next January Currently following the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Russian Open in which FAN Zhendong did not compete he lies in fourth place on the Men’s Singles Standings with 547 points behind MA Long (1 150 points) XU Xin (575 points) and Masato SHIONO (557 points). Undoubtedly XU Xin and YAN An will also receive invitations for Dubai; currently YAN An is in ninth place on the Men’s Singles Standings and with 16 players being invited to the Grand Finals he is assured of an invitation. Sweden will be the sixth GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour tournament of the year for XU Xin and YAN An. Portugal’s Marcos FREITAS is the fourth seed and is currently in 30th place on the Men’s Singles Standings (98 points); Chinese Taipei’s CHEN Chien-An is the fifth seed and is in 27th position (103 points) whilst Spain’s Carlos MACHADO is the no.14 seed and in 25th spot (109 points) Likewise in the Women’s Singles event there are players on duty at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Swedish Open who could well confirm their places on the Dubai invitation list. LI Jiao of the Netherlands is presently at no.13 on the Women’s Singles Standings (188 points) and is the second seed in Stockholm whilst Chinese Taipei’s CHENG I-Ching is in 16th position on the list (152 points) and in the third seed in Sweden.
LIVENTSOV and PAIKOV won gold in Doubles in Ekaterinburg
Japan’s Kazuhiro CHAN the no.3 seed beat the host nation’s Alexander SHIBAEV the no.6 seed in seven games to secure the title at the Men’s Singles event at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Russian Open in Ekaterinburg. Ding NING moves to the top of Japan’s Kazuhiro CHAN the no.3 seed beat the host nation’s Alexander SHIBAEV the no.6 seed in seven games to secure the title at the Men’s Singles event at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Russian Open in Ekaterinburg. Ding NING moves to the top of the Women’s Singles Standings and is assured of an invitation to attend the prestigious US$ 1 000 000 Grand Finals to be staged in Dubai next January. In the final of the Women’s Singles event in Ekaterinburg DING Ning the second seed beat Chinese beat Chinese National Team colleague and top seed LIU Shiwen to arrest the top prize. Alexey LIVENTSOV and Mikhail PAIKOV secured the Men’s Doubles title. Unfortunately owing to illness LI Xiaoxia had been forced to withdraw from the Women’s Doubles final. She was due to partner Chinese National Team colleague ZHU Yuling; the match was awarded to compatriots DING Ning and LIU Shiwen the silver medallists at the LIEBHERR World Championships earlier in the year in Paris. Urged forward by local supporters Alexey LIVENTSOV and Mikhail PAIKOV beat Japan’s Kazuhiro CHAN and Kenji MATSUDAIRA by the very narrowest of margins; they succeeded in full five games distance duel.
Russian Open: U21 title for Vildan GADIEV
The host nation’s Vildan GADIEV and Japan’s Misaki MORIZONO won the respective Under 21 Men’s Singles and Under 21 Women’s Singles events at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Russian Open in Ekaterinburg to bring the fourth day of play to a conclusion. The host nation’s Vildan GADIEV and Japan’s Misaki MORIZONO won the respective Under 21 Men’s Singles and Under 21 Women’s Singles events at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Russian Open in Ekaterinburg to bring the fourth day of play to a conclusion. Vildan GADIEV the no.2 seed accounted for qualifier Pavel KHRIPUNENKO in the penultimate round (9-11 11-6 11-6 11-9 11-5) before securing the title at the final expense of Sadi ISMAILOV the no.6 seed (6-11 11-3 11-9 11-7 11-13 11-5) in a competition that saw Russia provide all four semi-finalists. In the counterpart semi-final Sadi ISMAILOV the no.6 seed had caused an upset of note; he defeated Philipp KUIMOV the no.1 seed (11-8 11-6 6-11 12-10 11-8). Alexander SHIBAEV of Russia reached the penultimate stage of the Men’s Singles event. For the place in the final he will play against CHENG Jingqi of China. Meanwhile in the Men’s and Women’s Doubles events both finals will see the top two seeded pairs confront each other. At the semi-final stage of the Men’s Doubles event Russia’s Alexey LIVENTSOV and Mikhail PAIKOV the top seeds beat colleagues Fedor KUZMIN and Alexander SHIBAEV the no.3 seeds; whilst in the opposite half of the draw it was victory for Japan’s Kazuhiro CHAN and Kenji MATSUDAIRA the no.2 seeds. Kazuhiro CHAN and Kenji MATSUDAIRA overcame compatriots Ryusuke KARUBE and Hiromitsu KASAAHARA (11-8 3-11 7-11 10-12 11-6). Russia versus Japan in the Men’s Doubles final; in the counterpart Women’s Doubles event the gold medal contest is China versus China. In the final DING Ning and LIU Shiwen will meet LI Xiaoxia and ZHU Yuling.
GRIGORIEV against all odds on Ekaterinburg
In the first round of the Men’s Singles event at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Russian Open in Ekaterinburg currently with no World ranking against their names the Chinese trio of YIN Hang ZHENG Peifeng and CHENG Jingqi continued their path of dest In the first round of the Men’s Singles event at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Russian Open in Ekaterinburg currently with no World ranking against their names the Chinese trio of YIN Hang ZHENG Peifeng and CHENG Jingqi continued their path of destruction. Each of the three teenagers caused upsets; all beat seeded adversaries all ended the dreams of player s from the host nation. YIN Hang overcame Vasiliy LAKEEV the no. 11 seed in a hard fought seven games duel; ZHENG Peifeng accounted for Fedor KUZMIN the no.13 seed in five games whilst CHENG Jingqi was the most impressive of all. He defeated Mikhail Paikov in four straight games. However host nation showed that they can create few upsets of their own. Artur GRIGORIEV who had been required to compete in the qualification stage of proceedings caused the biggest upset of the round. He beat Japan’s Kenta MATSUDAIRA the no.8 seed in five games to reserve his place in the second round Alexander SHIBAEV the no.6 seed and Alexey LIVENTSOV the no.7 seed won all-Russian duels. SHIBAEV beat Ilya ZHIDOV whilst LIVENTSOV defeated Sadi ISMAILOV. Viktoria PAVLOVICH of Belarus reached second round after victory over Mika TSUCHIDA of Japan and Yana NOSKOVA overcame Haruka SAKAI of Japan. Asian players booked remaining 14 places in the draw.
Russia’s player shined on their home soil
After the two days of the qualification matches at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Russian Open in Ekaterinburg Viacheslav BUROV Viatcheslav KRIVOSHEEV and Artur GRIGOREV all completed their first stage matches in top place in their respective groups. After the two days of the qualification matches at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Russian Open in Ekaterinburg Viacheslav BUROV Viatcheslav KRIVOSHEEV and Artur GRIGOREV all completed their first stage matches in top place in their respective groups. They were top seeds in their respective Groups so the outcome is not a surprise. On the other hand the success of Aleksei ZHUKOV is. He was seeded only at the position no. four in his Group but managed to beat Arseniy GUSEV and Artur ABUSEV of Russia as well as Gleb SHAMRUK of Belarus to book the place in the main draw of the Men’s Singles Event. In the qualifications of the Women’s Singles Event Alexandra PRIVALOVA and Elena DUBKOVA of Belarus as well as Maria DOLGIH of Russia and her compatriot Margarita FETUKHINA secured their place in the Round of 32 from the top position.
Top German politician had to wait for Dima
Berlin. Lufthansa flight LH2049 was actually unapproachable. Straight down from second place of the podium at the German Open Dimitrij OVTCHAROV sprinted with his gym bag over his shoulder the Cup in one hand and a winner’s check in the other hand Berlin. Lufthansa flight LH2049 was actually unapproachable. Straight down from second place of the podium at the German Open Dimitrij OVTCHAROV sprinted with his gym bag over his shoulder the Cup in one hand and a winner’s check in the other hand out of the venue Max-Schmeling-Halle and into the shuttle car of Monika WITTMANN that was waiting for him just outside the back door of the Arena. The lady from Frankfurt had an actually impossible task: she had to drive 9 kilometres through Berlin on a busy Sunday evening with many red lights to Tegel airport within 20 minutes. OVTCHAROV had his holiday flights booked for himself and his fiancée the Swede Jenny MELLSTRÖM for 6.55pm -from Berlin to Dubai via Munich. They planed to spend 8 days of recovery paired with OVTCHAROV’s light training. This is the annual vacation of the 25-year-old world’s number 5 European Singles Champion and German Open finalists. Every minute for relaxation is precious a whole day even more and Dima would certainly have lost at least a complete day if he had missed that plane. “We used every gap that opened up and drove by some deeply green traffic lights. After 8 days of work at the German Open I could even drive the route eyeless ” Monika WITTMANN quips. Even hours later she is still completely exhilarated. In real life WITTMANN could be a racing driver but she earns her money (for now) working with the administration of the city of Frankfurt am Main. WITTMANN’s colleague Simone OERTEL was already waiting at the airport. She had transported OVTCHAROV’s fiancée Jenny and the couple’s baggage informed the security staff about the situation and begged for time for OVTCHAROV. “We’ve played all our cards when the lady from the check-in phone called the pilot: Current 5th of the World ranking Europe’s number 1 and soon of the world Olympic medalist ” Oertel says. “In the end I even said that Lufthansa is the sponsor of the German Table Tennis Association.” Which was a lie… This lie might not have been necessary because: “The people at the Lufthansa counter were very nice and did everything that was possible to let Dima catch the plane ” adds OERTEL who is with the national public service old-age pension in Berlin. So the luggage was already checked but only loaded when Dimitrij OVTCHAROV had entered the airport. In particular the gate for the special passenger remained for once open until departure. “They were 2 people at the check-in. The man was relaxed enduring my chatter and finally said Oops now he is checked in’” says OERTEL. Meanwhile in the car Dimitrij OVTCHAROV who had over and over again informed Jenny via phone about his distance to the airport did not stay in the car for any second longer than he had to. “When we arrived at the airport is Dima almost jumped out of the car while driving. I have only seen a shadow running into the airport ” Monika WITTMANN describes. Well another celebrity was on board on time and had to wait a moment. “It was said that Horst SEEHOFER was already on board ” say the 2 shuttle service volunteers. “And now must wait for Dima.” Fortunately it was not for too long. Table tennis perfectionists OVTCHAROV succeeded too in this respect with a precision landing. Mr Horst SEEHOFER is one of the leading German politicians Prime Minister of the county of Bavaria and chairman of CSU party the regional sister party of chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU. Because SEEHOFER was already on the plane a member of his security staff who had remained at the airport was relaxed and had time to shoot a photo of the ladies WITTMANN and OERTEL holding the oversized winner-show check of OVTCHAROV’s and his cup. Both things were namely too bulky for hand luggage. For the volunteers who support the German Table Tennis Association at major events since 2010 in their spare time this picture was an added bonus. Back at the venue they immediately handed check and cup over to the DTTB to keep it for its owner. They are keeping their most beautiful trophy in their memories anyway. “We hate normal driving ” assures Monika WITTMANN. “But we just love trips like this evening.”
Russian Open: the last chance for Dubai
GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Russian Open starts tomorrow in Ekaterinburg. It will gathered the top players in Women’s Singles Event since it is the last chance for the Chinese trio of LIU Shiwen DING Ning and LI Xiaoxia to book their place at the GAC GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Russian Open starts tomorrow in Ekaterinburg. It will gathered the top players in Women’s Singles Event since it is the last chance for the Chinese trio of LIU Shiwen DING Ning and LI Xiaoxia to book their place at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals to be staged in Dubai next January. In order to fulfill the basic qualification requirement to compete in the Women’s Singles event at the prestigious gathering with the prize fund of US$ 1 000 000 the top three women on the current World Ranking list must all play in one more tournament in this year’s schedule They are the top three seeds in the Women’s Singles event at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Koltsovo Russian Open. The fourth seed is their compatriot ZHU Yuling who stands at no.5 on the current World rankings one place behind Singapore’s FENG Tianwei who is not listed to appear in Ekaterinburg A prominent entry from China in the Women’s Singles event in the counterpart Men’s Singles competition Japan leads the way. They occupy the top for places in the seeding. Koki NIWA is the top seed followed by Taku TAKAKIWA Kazuhiro CHAN and the man of the moment Masato SHIONO the player who has forced his way into the Japanese Men’s Team as a result of staggering performances on the ITTF World Tour.
Liam PITCHFORD set for world’s top 100
Twenty-year-old Liam PITCHFORD from Chesterfield Derbyshire hit the form of his life at the Polish and German Opens to send out a huge message to his Commonwealth Games rivals ahead of Glasgow 2014. The reigning English National Champion was rampant in Twenty-year-old Liam PITCHFORD from Chesterfield Derbyshire hit the form of his life at the Polish and German Opens to send out a huge message to his Commonwealth Games rivals ahead of Glasgow 2014. The reigning English National Champion was rampant in Europe extending his ‘giant-killer’ reputation after a series of stunning victories. In Poland he beat Patrick FRANZISKA (GER world rank 38) and Noshad ALAMIYAN (IRI 54) before bettering those results with wins over GAO Ning (SIN 16) Kenta MATSUDAIRA (JPN 18) OH Sangeun (KOR 29) and YANG Zi (SIN 81) in Germany. The youngster who plies his trade in Germany with club TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen rode his excellent form to a personal best finish of the Men’s Singles Quarter-Finals and Under-21s Semi-Finals at one of the premier world table tennis events in Berlin. The current world no 125 came to prominence after his shock victory over world no. 9 and former three–time European Champion Vladimir SAMSONOV in the 2011 European Championships when he was ranked 269th in the world. However PITCHFORD’s performances are now expected to push the Englishman well inside the world’s top 100 when the rankings are published in December – potentially higher than the no. 83 position that colleague Paul Drinkhall reached in August 2012. His new-found form and results come less than a year before the Commonwealth Games where the England team are expecting to pick up medals once again. No Englishman has won the singles gold medal since the sport’s addition to the Games in Manchester 2002 but with victories over Singapore’s GAO Ning and YANG Zi – two of the biggest candidates for gold in Glasgow the argument for Pitchford to become the first English gold medal winner has certainly strengthened. It took six-time European Champion and current world no. 6 Tim BOLL (GER) to end the Derbyshire-born star’s run in Germany but even he admitted how tough the Englishman can be. BOLL said: “The last game might have been a clean sweep but all the other games were very close. He is not my favorite opponent. Recently in the German Bundesliga I had a tough fight with him only beating him 3-2. He is always difficult to play for me.” Liam PITCHFORD on form: “This is by far my best tournament of my life and has already given me a lot of confidence. I am playing the best table tennis of my life. I am playing regularly for my club in Germany now. It is great practice every day and there is everything there I need to get better. In the last few months I have developed more as a player which is great. Last week I played well at the Polish Open so it is nice to have a good run of form. I need to keep on trying to play my game in the future and play my game better and better.” On beating YANG Zi: “I had lost to YANG Zi twice before 4-0 so I was a bit nervous before the match. I went into it trying to be confident. I know how he plays and I guess he knows how I play as well so in the end it was good to survive. I was leading 3-1 and was up in the 5th but he came back and he changed things in the game. In the last set my coach Darius KNIGHT said to slow it down and put more spin in more forehand and push him out the way. Darius was a lot of help even just to have my team mate in the corner to support me.” Victories over OH Sangeun GAO Ning and Kenta MATSUDAIRA: “Playing against Oh Sangeun was amazing he has been a legend in table tennis. I felt confident in the match as I was competitive all the way through. Even the games I did lose I was leading in them at some stage. Thankfully I took the last two sets and won. I have known GAO Ning a long time. My plan was to hit a lot of spin to his backhand as his backhand is not as strong as his forehand. I tried to play the same way as yesterday which was positive and aggressive and it worked again. I feel great it was an amazing match but extremely tough. I lost against Kenta in Poland so it was good to reverse that result. I had played Kenta just last week so I knew my tactics well.”
