Best ever Women’s European Champions League – first time with eight clubs – starts this Friday when two out of four Round 1 matches to be held, both in Group B: Zamek Tarnobrzek – Budaorsi 2i SC (September 6th, 17h00 CET, live and free on Laola1.tv), Linz, Best ever Women’s European Champions League – first time with eight clubs – starts this Friday when two out of four Round 1 matches to be held, both in Group B: Zamek Tarnobrzek – Budaorsi 2i SC (September 6th, 17h00 CET, live and free on Laola1.tv), Linz AG Froschberg – Tyumen. Saturday is reserved for Group A: Fenerbahce – SVS STROCK, TTC Berlin Eastside – Metz. Istanbul`s game is in the focus of attention, because actual ETTU Cup winner and clear favorite of 2013/14 WECL, Fenerbahce expects 2011/12 WECL finalist SVS STROCK. Many great players will be involved in this encounter and STROCK`s manager Martin SOROS is looking forward to the trip to Turkey. “Group A is definitely the strongest WECL-Group ever and I bet a lot that the WECL-winner of this season is coming out of this group – what a pity that two of these world-class-teams have to check out of Champions League after the group-matches. Our (first) goal is to ’survive’ the group-stage and we definitely do not enter WECL to miss the Semifinal. Ok, Istanbul and Berlin are the – so called – favorites in group A, but SVS STRÖCK never plays a match to lose. We don’t travel to Istanbul to be a willing victim. We have a chance there and we will fight for this chance. On the other hand we are expecting the best-ever-team in history of Women’s ECL: PAVLOVICH, SAMARA, HU Melek and CHENG I Ching – this is unbelievable to meet this excellent team in first round. Our team is in great shape and against all other teams in Europe I would expect on this 7th of September a win for our team knowing how good they are – Istanbul vs. SVS STRÖCK: This is like Barcelona vs. Bayern Munich. Good for our sport, good for the visitors. Women’s Table Tennis in Europa is born again”! Fenerbahce`s team manager Gürhan YALDIZ stressed that “Fenerbahce`s aim is to lift new European trophy, prestigious one, no meter how strong are its opponents”. On the other side Martin SOROS believes in STROCK`s girls, hoping that this year they will have no problems like last season. “After our ’hell-season’ 2012/2013 with injuries, sicknesses and risk-pregnancy we had to react immediately and renewed SVS STRÖCK almost completely. We are quite sure, that this season we are far stronger: Tetyana BILENKO, LI Fen, Petra LOVAS and Daniela DODEAN are on one (very high) level and also the spirit and the atmosphere is great. We are practicing together in Werner Schlager Academy in Vienna now for long time and our Ströck-Family is getting closer and closer. Our Coaches Aya UMEMURA and Tamara BOROS bring our players up to their daily limits and – this my impression – we are getting stronger day by day”. Two newcomers will be the guests of two champions in last two seasons. Russian Tyumen goes to Linz to fight against current WECL winner Froschberg, whilst French Metz is traveling to Germany, on the game with 2012 champion Berlin Eastside. The 2012/13 ETTU Cup finalist, Polish champion Zamek Tarnobrzeg hosts Hungarian Budaorsi, the runner-up of previous WECL season. Zamek expects about 1,000 spectators and one of them will be, for sure, Mayor of Tarnobrzeg City Norbert MASTALERZ who believes that his team can beat the rival. “this is one of the most important matches in the group and it would be nice to start competition well”. Zamek`s players Renata STRBIKOVA says: “I’ve been missing our matches in ETTU Cup, so if coach decides to nominate me to Friday’s match I will play with great pleasure”. WOMEN`S EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE ROUND 1 GROUP A: Fenerbahce – SVS STROCK (September 7th, 13h30 CET), Berlin Eastside – Metz (September 7th, 18h00 CET). GROUP B: Zamek – Budaorsi 2i SC (September 6th, 17h00 CET, live and free on Laola1.tv), Linz – Tyumen (September 6th, 18h00 CET).
It’s Eurochamps turn: welcome on board!
The draw for the forthcoming LIEBHERR 2013 European Championships (4th – 13th October) at the Multiversum Schwechat/Werner Schlager Academy will be held in in Vienna International Airport on Wednesday morning. ETTU TV powered by LAOLA1.tv will be broadcas, The draw for the forthcoming LIEBHERR 2013 European Championships (4th – 13th October) at the Multiversum Schwechat/Werner Schlager Academy will be held in in Vienna International Airport on Wednesday morning. ETTU TV powered by LAOLA1.tv will be broadcasting this important event via LIVE-Stream from 11:00 CET (http://ettu.laola1.tv). In Championships Division of the Men Team’s Event will play winners of Groups A and B Portugal and Russia, runner ups France and Croatia, teams placed at position no. 3 after two year of qualifications Germany and Belarus, no.4 Spain and Austria, no. 5 Sweden and Greece, as well Challenge Division winners of the Groups Czech Republic and Poland. In Challenge Division will play teams that finished at the last position in their respective Groups in Championships division Serbia and Hungary, runners up in their Groups in Challenge Division Romania and Slovenia as well as England, Turkey, Slovakia, Denmark, Bulgaria, Italy, Ukraine and Belgium. In Standard Division will compete Estonia, Norway, Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Latvia, Ireland and Iceland. Israel withdrew. In Women Team’s Event in Championships Division will play winners of the Groups A and B from the qualifications, Hungary and Germany. Runners up Belarus and Russia will be on positions 9 and 8 in the draw, whilst Poland, France, Czech Republic and Spain will be draw to positions 5, 6, 11, or 12. Netherlands and Romania are also in this Division as teams that finished at position no. five in their respective Groups. Three remaining teams are winners of Groups in Challenge division Ukraine and Turkey as well as Austria. That means, the Championships Division will have 13 teams. As we earlier announced after having received from the Austrian Association a request to promote their Women’s Team to the Championships Division, the ETTU Executive Board decided to have, exceptionally 13 teams playing in the Championships Division, including the Austrian team; to have the Austrian team playing a preliminary qualification match against one of the teams promoted from the Challenge Division; to have 3 teams relegated from both, the Championships Division and the Challenge Division. In Challenge Division will play Croatia, England, Sweden, Luxembourg, Serbia, Portugal, Lithuania, Slovakia, Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Slovenia. In Standard Division will play Estonia, Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Norway, Kosovo, Finland, Israel, Scotland, Wales, Denmark.
TT Classic opening new MECL season
There is no better way to start the new Men’s European Champions League than one we can see this Wednesday (September 4th, 19h00, live and free on Laola1.tv) in Multiversum Schwechat / Werner Schlager Academy. Great rivalry between SVS Niederosterreich an, There is no better way to start the new Men’s European Champions League than one we can see this Wednesday (September 4th, 19h00, live and free on Laola1.tv) in Multiversum Schwechat / Werner Schlager Academy. Great rivalry between SVS Niederosterreich and Borussia Dusseldorf will be continued as the peak of the day which starts by LIEBHERR 2013 European Championships draw, on same place. These two clubs met one another in group stage in previous two seasons and all four games won German side (3:1, 3:2 in 2011/12, 3:2, 3:2 in 2012/13) But, Austrians always were very close, losing one match on their soil thanks to unexpected Borussia`s hero Janos JAKAB. They also fought in 2010/11 semi final when Timo BOLL & Company reached their third MECL final and title in a row (2009-11). Austrians have the same names in the team as last year (CHEN Weixing, LEUNG Chu Yan, Daniel HABESOHN and Stefan FEGERL) whilst guests arrive with their new no. 3, Indian Kamal ACHANTA who had successful debut in Bundesliga last week, contributing in victory against Grenzau (3:1, he beat JANCARIK 3:2). The club earlier explained that convalescence of Christian SUSS’ (knee-injury) will take several months which means that will not be available until the end of the year. Six times individual European champion Timo BOLL and Patrick BAUM are still no. 1 and no. 2 respectively. “They still have players on same level as SUSS”, stressed Niederosterreich`s LEUNG Chu Yan, explaining why he expects, as always, big fight against Düsseldorf’s Lions. Russian Fakel of Gazprom hosts French Angers, hunting third title in a row, with same trio: Dimitrij OVTCHAROV, Vladimir SAMSONOV, Alexei SMIRNOV. On the other side, guests trie to reach quarter final in its comeback to MECL. Angers was beaten by UMMC in last season’s ETTU Cup quarter final, and it was expected, knowing that Verkhnaya Pyshma`s side won that cup. “Domestic matches in Orenburg always generate so much interest among fans of table tennis in our town – speaks Orenburg`s coach Valeriy SALABAEV. – So it affects the players of Fakel of Gazprom and their responsibility for the result as well. The forthcoming game is especially expected as it is the first match to be held in the new Table Tennis Centre of Russia that is starting operation to the full capacity. The opposing team is very strong, able to compete with any club. We plan to use our best forces in the game and are aimed at winning it.” Fakel of Gazprom`s manager TTC Alexander MYASNIKOV is also very careful, but optimistic: “Our rivals – are the only European club against we have negative ratio of wins and losses. Our players are concentrated on the victory. The match in Orenburg is traditionally planned to be held as a great sports festival”. Group B, unique with four teams, starts with two games in the cities which hosted MECL semi finals in last two editions: Saarbrucken and Pontoise. German Saarbrucken expects Swedish Eslov who returns to the main club’s competition. Germans has new coach (Slobodan GRUJIC) and new player (Tiago APOLONIA), while Olympic medalist Bastian STEGER and Bojan TOKIC continue. They must be very motivated to erase poor performance in opening round of Bundesliga (0:3 from Werder). Swedish team has two host players Robert SVENSSON (world’s no. 130) and Mattias ÖVERSJÖ (no. 288) and Dan Kasper STERNBERG (no. 224). Pontoise had good 2012/13 season and now FREITAS, WANG Jian Jun, KARLSSON and FLORE are faced with big task in the new beginning. They expect new Russian champion and one of MECL favorites UMMC which changed its no. 1. Japanese Jun MIZUTANI takes leading role from Chinese defender HOU Yingchao, and other players are Croatian TAN, host SHIBAEV and Portuguese MONTEIRO. New champions of Bundesliga, Werder Bremen opens 2013/14 MECL season on their soil, against newcomer from Austria. CHUANG Chih-Yuan, Adrian CRISAN, Constantin CIOTI and Paul DRINKHALL are able even for the top, so it’s clear how hard MECL debut expects Austrians (ZHAN Jian, Zolt PETE, Dominique PLATTNER, Lehel DEMETER). Werder had superb start in national league, beating Saarbrucken 3:0 without losing any set. “Our team has prepared very well during summer and is highly motivated for playing at the MECL for the first time. However, SV Werder Bremen surely is one of the top teams in the MECL. Having their last match against Saarbrücken in mind, which they won without even losing one set, our (quite high) expectation is to win at least one game, as well as gaining some experience for our future matches within the MECL”. MEN`S EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE ROUND 1 GROUP A: Orenburg – Angers (September 6th, 12h20 CET) GROUP B: Saarbrucken – Eslov (September 6th, 19h30 CET), Pontoise – UMMC (September 7th, 19h45 CET) GROUP C: Werder – Walter Wels (September 6th, 19h00 CET) GROUP D: Niederosterreich – Borussia (September 4th, 19h00 CET, live and free on Laola.tv)
Balkan Championships: Serbia clinched 11 medals
At the Balkan U21 Championships held this week in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia is the most successful nation with 11 medals on their record. At the last day of the tournament Montenegro’s Irfan CEKIC , the winner of the Games of Small States e, At the Balkan U21 Championships held this week in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia is the most successful nation with 11 medals on their record. At the last day of the tournament Montenegro’s Irfan CEKIC , the winner of the Games of Small States earlier this year, clinched another gold. CEKIC overcame Valentin NADJEMEDI of Serbia in the final of the Men’s Singles Event. Cristian PLATEA of Romania and Petyo KRASTEV of Bulgaria won bronze. In Women’s Singles Event final Sibel REMZI of Bulgaria overcame Aliz DJURCIK of Serbia. Bernadett BALINT of Romania and her compatriot Roxana IAMANDI won bronze. In Men’s Doubles Event Boris MIHAILOVIC and Vladimir RADONJIC of Serbia beat Petyo KRASTEV and Irfan CEKIC in the final. They succeeded against NADJNEMEDI and Ilija MAJSTOROVIC OF Serbia and Teodor ALEXANDROV and Denislav KODJABASHEV of Bulgaria in semis. Aliz DJURCIK and Aleksandra RADONJIC are Balkan champions in Women’s Doubles followed by Aneta MAKSUTI and Viktoria TRUZINSKI. Gokcenur GUNGOR and Ipek KARAHAN of Turkey and Ivanka ANGELOVA with Elitsa ZAMFIROVA of Bulgaria clinched bronze. Denislav KODJBASHEV and Sibel REMZI won the title in Mixed Doubles Event. In the final they prevailed against Serbia’s Vladimir and Aleksandra RADONJIC.
25 mln fans supporting Turkish dream team
Turkish champion opens its very first WECL chapter on its soil, against 2012 finalist, Austrian SVS STROCK (September 7th, 13h30). Playing with same line-up winning ETTU Cup five months ago: Viktoria PAVLOVICH (no. 15) – two times (2010, 2012) individual , Turkish champion opens its very first WECL chapter on its soil, against 2012 finalist, Austrian SVS STROCK (September 7th, 13h30). Playing with same line-up winning ETTU Cup five months ago: Viktoria PAVLOVICH (no. 15) – two times (2010, 2012) individual gold medalist of European Championships and current champion of Old Continent, Elisabeta SAMARA (no. 19) – two times quarter finalist of ECH, and HU Melek (no. 37) – the 2010 EC individual bronze medalist. Table Tennis Club Fenerbahce was Turkish Super League champion and Turkish Cup winner in the last 5 years and ETTU Cup champion in the last 2 seasons. It`s a member of super strong family of Fanerbahce Sport Club which have more than 1,500 players in all sports (basketball, volleyball, table tennis, boxing, roving, swimming, football, athletics), around 100 coaches and many halls: for 15,000 people basketball, for 55,000 football stadium, for 5,000 volleyball… Each sport has its own hall for practice in Istanbul. The club is founded in 1907, becoming the biggest one in Turkey, with around 25 million supporters. “This year we have decided to play the Women’s European Champions League. We think this throphy is more important, more prestigious, and there are more strong teams. We have been playing for 7-8 years in ETTU Cup and we think that is quite enough experience for this event”, emphasized Fenerbahce`s team manager Gürhan YALDIZ who expects new successful season for his side: “We expect to have good relationship with the good and strong teams. But also – good advertisement, strong sponsors, to provide successful results to Turkish table tennis world.” Gurhan YALDIZ has no dilemma what Fenerbahce must do in upcoming season: “At the very beginning we would like to reach half final and maybe the final. Of course, the main goal is to be WECL champion”. – How close are connections of table tennis with Football Club Fenerbahce? “We have 8 different branches in FB club as amateur sports except football. We are totally different from football but we have very close relation with the other sports in FB club. As you know football is always different and more popular all around the world.” – How big is the club`s hall and how many spectators do you expect on your WECL games? “We have not so big hall but we expect our club will arrange a big hall in next year. So we have around more than 500 spectators in our all matches.” – What do you know about your WECL opponents in the super strong Group A (2012 champion Berlin Eastside, 2012 finalist SVS STROCK and Metz)? “We have played with some clubs before in ETTU Cup matches and we haven’t got so much experience with the others, but as we know, all teams are very strong and have enough experience in this cup. I think all matches will be very difficult and very close so it means all of them will be very exciting and tasteful for the spectators.” – Do you agree with many people that Fenerbahce is top favorite for the WECL title? “They are right and they know how powerful and how experienced our team is. We think we give enough confidence by being the champion in two recent years.” – What is Fenerbahce`s long time strategy? “We would like to stay permanently in WECL with strong and good teams, and to continue being champions in WECL. We are thinking on organizing a good men`s team too for the European cups. We are very ambitious and we would like to be always in top in Europe”.
Titles for Bulgaria and Serbia at Balkan Championships
Bulgaria and Serbia clinched the titles at the Balkan U21 Championships in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the final of the Men’s Team’s Event Petyo KRASTEV, Teodor ALEXANDROV and Derislav KODJABASHEV of Bulgaria beat Serbia, whilst in the final of t, Bulgaria and Serbia clinched the titles at the Balkan U21 Championships in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the final of the Men’s Team’s Event Petyo KRASTEV, Teodor ALEXANDROV and Derislav KODJABASHEV of Bulgaria beat Serbia, whilst in the final of the Women’s Teams Event Serbia’s Aneta MAKSUTI, Aleksandra RADONJIC and Anelia LUPULESKU overcame Bulgaria. In semi final of the Men’s Team’s Event valentine NADJNEMEDI, Vladimir RADONJIC and Boris MIHAILOVIC beat Montenegro’s Viktor ROGIC, Irfan CEKIC and Lazar JANKOVIC 3:1. In other duel Bulgaria overcame Romania’s Daniel DAN, Alin SPELBUS And Cristian PLETEA 3:0. In penultimate stage Bulgaria’s Sibel REMZI, Ivanka ANGELOVA and Elitsa ZAMFIROVA beat representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ivona BASKARD, Emina HADZIAHMETOVIC and Ajla KOVAC. Serbia overcame Romania’s Roxana IAMANDI, Bernadett BALINT and Alina ZAHARIA.
New season starts with a bang on Laola1.tv
The long wait is finally over. The ETTU Champions League is back, and with a bang! Two great matches from the men’s and women’s tournaments as well as the draw for the team event of the LIEBHERR European Championships will be broadcast. Tune in LIVE and F, The long wait is finally over. The ETTU Champions League is back, and with a bang! Two great matches from the men’s and women’s tournaments as well as the draw for the team event of the LIEBHERR European Championships will be broadcast. Tune in LIVE and FREE to ETTU TV powered by LAOLA1.tv for the best table tennis Europe has to offer! LIEBHERR European Championships official draw | 04.09.2013 11:00 CET The LIEBHERR European Championships will take place LIVE on ETTU TV powered by LAOLA1.tv from the 4th to 13th of October. The draw for the team event in this tournament will happen on Wednesday morning at Vienna International Airport. ETTU TV powered by LAOLA1.tv will be broadcasting this important event via LIVE-Stream, meaning fans will be able to find out who their team will face in October LIVE from 11:00 CET on http://ettu.laola1.tv ETTU Champions League Men – SVS Niederösterreich – Borussia Düsseldorf | 04.09.2013 19:00 CET The Men’s Champions League could not start any better! These two teams have met each other on numerous occasions over recent seasons and the rivalry between the Austrian and German teams is set to continue this year as well! The two teams have been drawn in a very difficult group D alongside last season’s defeated finalists Chartres ASTT. Düsseldorf had a disappointing season for their standards last year as they suffered with injuries. With Christian Suss still on the side lines they have been called into action by signing Kamal Achata, the experienced Indian player. Find out if he we be able to have an impact on his new team LIVE and FREE on ETTU TV powered by LAOLA1.tv on Wednesday evening at 19:00 CET. ETTU Champions League Women – KTS ZAMEK – Budaörsi | 06.09.2013 17:00 CET Friday will be a huge day for KTS Zamek as they will play their very first ever ETTU Champions League match against last season’s runner-up Budaörsi. Zamek are no strangers to international club table tennis and they made it to the final of the ETTU Cup last season, losing to Fenerbahce Sport Club in the end. The Hungarians will prove difficult opponents for the Polish team and they have set their sights on finishing at least 3rd in the group. Froschberg and Tyumen are the other two teams in the group which the Austrians will be hoping to win. Can Zamek win their first ever Champions League match? Find out LIVE and FREE on LAOLA1.tv
Austria in top Women division in Schwechat
Following the decision of the ETTU Executive Board, the Women’s Team Championships Division at forthcoming LIEBHERR European Championships will go under some changes. Regarding that meter ETTU issued official statement: “After having received from the Aus, Following the decision of the ETTU Executive Board, the Women’s Team Championships Division at forthcoming LIEBHERR European Championships will go under some changes. Regarding that meter ETTU issued official statement: “After having received from the Austrian Association a request to promote their Women’s Team to the Championships Division of coming European Championships in Schwechat the ETTU Executive Board took following decision: to have, exceptionally 13 teams playing in the Championships Division, including the Austrian team; to have the Austrian team playing a preliminary qualification match against one of the teams promoted from the Challenge Division; to have 3 teams relegated from both, the Championships Division and the Challenge Division. This is in the opinion of the Executive Board a fair decision, especially towards the organiser in order to promote table tennis in Austria.” Click here to read/download the final entries
Sarajevo celebrate BTTA 50th anniversary
In Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina today started the 39th Balkan Senior (11th U21) Table Tennis Championships. During the four days competition Balkan Table Tennis Union will celebrate very important date, 50th anniversary. On the first day of the compet, In Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina today started the 39th Balkan Senior (11th U21) Table Tennis Championships. During the four days competition Balkan Table Tennis Union will celebrate very important date, 50th anniversary. On the first day of the competition Group matches of Team’s Event were on schedule. In men’s U21 Team’s Event Bulgaria beat Montenegro 3:2, Bosnia and Herzegovina overcame FYRO Macedonia. In Group B Serbia beat Romania 3:0 and Turkey overcame Kosovo. In Women’s Team’s Event in Group A Serbia beat Montenegro 3:0 and in Group B Turkey beat Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina overcame Romania.
JOOLA Mini Cadet Open Championships 2014 in Budapest
Univer – Sport Kft will organize the JOOLA Mini Cadet Open Championships 2014 at the very beginning of next year in Budapest. Between 3rd and 5th January all ITTF member associations and every Table Tennis Sport Clubs is invited to enter their playe, Univer – Sport Kft will organize the JOOLA Mini Cadet Open Championships 2014 at the very beginning of next year in Budapest. Between 3rd and 5th January all ITTF member associations and every Table Tennis Sport Clubs is invited to enter their players. Beside Mini cadet boy’s team and Mini cadet girl’s team Events, there are 4 more singles events: Mini cadet boy’s singles (born after 01 January 2001), Mini cadet girl’s singles (born after 01 January 2001), Mini cadet boy’s singles (born after 01 January 2003), Mini cadet girl’s singles (born after 01 January 2003). For more details read the prospectus The deadline for preliminary entries is 3rd December (Tuesday) 2013 and for final entries 20th December (Friday) 2013. Entries shall be sent to: E-mail: barsai.emese@gmail.com
