The 78th Spanish Table Tennis Championships came to an exciting conclusion at the Olivo Arena Sports Palace in Jaén with Marc DURÁN and Natalya PROSVIRNINA securing their respective titles in the men’s and women’s singles competitions. The event held between March 20 and 22 was attended by 1016 participants and drew significant attention from fans nationwide thanks to the live broadcast on Teledeporte. Catalan player Marc DURÁN claimed his third individual title (2015 2022 and 2023) after defeating Carlos Franco 4-1 in the men’s singles final. In the the women’s event 43-year-old Natalya PROSVIRNINA earned her first-ever Spanish Championship title representing Hujase Jaén Paraíso Interior. In the women’s singles final she overcame defending champion Sofía-Xuan ZHANG 4-1 showcasing a consistently strong defensive game. DURÁN and FRANCO’S journey to the final included thrilling semi-final matches with DURÁN defeating Alberto LILLO 4-3 and Franco beating eleven-time Spanish champion Carlos MACHADO 4-2. The doubles competition saw Carlos FRANCO and Miguel Ángel VILCHEZ secure their second title as a pairings after their victory in Granada in 2020 by defeating De Las HERAS/AYUSO 3-2 in the final. María XIAO and Jesús CANTERO successfully defended their mixed doubles title beating young University of Burgos players María BERZOSA and Daniel BERZOSA 3-1 in the final. Meanwhile in the women’s doubles competition Eugenia SASTRE and Ainhoa CRISTÓBAL from Son Cladera revalidating their championship winning against Elvira RAD and Jana RIERA 3-1. The closing ceremony featured a dazzling light show and was attended by Francisco REYES President of the Diputación of Jaén; Ana Belén JURADO Manager of the Jaén City Council Sports Board; Ángel Vera JAÉN Provincial Council’s Sports Deputy; and Miguel Ángel MACHADO President of the Royal Spanish Table Tennis Federation.

The most important individual event in Greek table tennis the 2023 National men’s-women’s championship is approaching. It will take place in the indoor gym of Amyntaio Florina on the weekend of March 25-26. It is the first time that the town in the Region of Florina in Macedonia located at a distance of 33 kilometers from the city of Florina will host the National championship of the major category. In the last two years the championship was held at the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Athens whilst in 2020 Chania Crete was the host. # The entries list reached the number of 69 players from 28 clubs. In the singles 39 men and 30 women will compete . # Ioannis SGOUROPOULOS and Konstantina PARIDI will defend their singles titles which they won in February 2022. They are in the 2nd and 1st places respectively of the seeding. # Like last year’s Greek doubles champions they will work together again. The KONSTANTINOPOULOS brothers George and Konstantinos who have completed 5 national titles as a duo and Aliki KIOUFI with Malamatenia PAPADIMITRIOU who won the gold medal together for the first time in the event. # Konstantinos ANGELAKIS reappears in the National championship and is also the 1st favorite. After the 2020 event in Crete where he also won the men’s singles national title he missed the 2021 and 2022 championships due to knee injuries. # Among the first 7 favorites of the men’s singles in the upcoming event there are 5 Greek champions. Besides ANGELAKIS and SGOUROPOULOS there are Konstantinos KONSTANTINOPOULOS Tasos RINIOTIS and Giorgos STAMATOUROS. # On the women’s side only PARIDI is among the participants has tasted the joy of a Greek title in women’s singles. # In Amynteo the leading Greek in the world ranking Katerina TOLIOU four-time champion in the women’s singles and last year’s finalist was left out of the competition for the first time due to competitive activities abroad. # The runner-up of Greece in 2022 in men’s singles and doubles Dimitris PAPADIMITRIOU and the “silver” in women’s singles in 2021 Elisavet TERPOU are also absent as well as Kallinikos KREANGA and Panagiotis GIONIS. # The record holder of men’s singles titles Ioannis VLOTINOS chose another year to take part only in the men’s doubles. # In the men’s doubles 18 pairs entered. In the women’s doubles 13 and in the mixed doubles 25. # For the mixed doubles we should emphasize that it is returning to the program of HTTF after 13 years. This event was held last time in the season 2009-2010. On 2021-2022 the federation had included it in the calendar as a separate event but it did not meet the interest and it was canceled. This year it is included it again in the program with the rest of the events as it was done in the 2021-2022 season in the National championship of young ages. # The last winners in mixed doubles before its suspension were in the period 2009-2010 Ioannis VLOTINOS and Katerina NTOULAKI.

During the the 81 Danish championships the Danish Association will celebrate its 80th birthday. In Men’s Singles Jonathan GROTH and Anders LIND the two best players have both won the Danish championships in singles five times. But they have never met each other in big tournaments.  However now they both participate in the Danish Championships in the coming week-end in Gladsaxe a suburb in Copenhagen. And the week after they will meet in the finals of the Europe Cup when KS Dekorglass Działdowo will clash against GV Hennebont TT ( 1. and 4. of April). Jonathan GROTH is seedet as number 1 and Anders LIND is seeded number 2 at top of the veteran Allan BENTSEN who is seeded no.3 and Tobias RASMUSSEN as number 4. Allan BENTSEN is recorholder in Denmark with 58 Danish championships and furthermore 3 Swedish and 5 Croatian championships. There are 73 players in men singles . In Women’s singles 18 players want to be the new queen in Danish table tennis. The champion from 2021 Sophie WALLØE is top seeded  with the champion from 2022 Jocefina HAAGENSEN seeded as number 2. Jonathan GROTH and Anders LIND do not play doubles in the coming  week-end and therefore the run for the double title is quite open. In men’s double Martin Buch ANDERSEN Virum and Tobias RASMUSSEN Hvidovre are topseeded and as number two are seeded Thor B. CHRISTENSEN Herlev and Peter SVENNINGSEN Hillerød.  Thor B. CHRISTENSEN has won the mens double together with Anders LIND the last three years.  The two top seeded in women’s singles  Sophie WALLØE and Jocefina HAAGENSEN are favourites in womens double. Sophie WALLØE Hvidovre is top seeded in all three events. In mixed doubles she plays with Tobias RASMUSSEN Hvidovre  . The champions from 2022 Emma Vendelbo CLEMENT and Theo DYEKJÆR Virum are seedet as number 3.

After two years break both men and women will fight for championship titles in the National Training Centre in Havířov. This season’s climax will take place in Northern Moravia from the 24th to the 26th of March. Last year’s singles titles from Kutná Hora belong to David REITŠPIES and Kateřina TOMANOVSKÁ. In the doubles the winners were Tomáš MARTINKO and Šimon BĚLÍK Tamara TOMANOVÁ and Markéta ŠEVČÍKOVÁ as well as Petr DAVID and Kristýna ŠEFCOVÁ. All the best Czech players will fight for the ultimate prize this year. In the men’s singles Tomáš POLANSKÝ Lubomír JANČAŘÍK Jiří MARTINKO or Pavel ŠIRUČEK. In the women’s singles Hana MATELOVÁ Kateřina TOMANOVSKÁ Zdena BLAŠKOVÁ and others. The one that will be missed is last year’s champion David REITŠPIES. The biggest favorite among women will be Hana MATELOVÁ currently the 34th player in the World ranking. “I’m really looking forward to the tournament. I like this event a lot. I didn’t take part last year because I was competing in Qatar. This time I will fight for the trophy. I practice with all my adversaries here so we all know each other well. It will depend on who’ll have the best form at the weekend. I hope I will be the one who takes gold ” says MATELOVÁ. The graduate of Havířov table tennis Pavel ŠIRUČEK will compete in men’s singles competition at the National championship for the first time after two years. “I missed the last two years due to injury. So I’m looking forward to it even more this time. It takes place in Havířov where I spent many years. Lubomír JANČAŘÍK and Tomáš POLANSKÝ are the favourites. They showed great form not so long ago in Singapore. I’d like to be the black horse of the tournament. I’ve had decent form lately as you could tell from the Extraliga results. The others know I will be dangerous. But the same goes for Jiří MARTINKO. I believe I can reach the latter stages and maybe fight for the title ” explained ŠIRUČEK.

The Table Tennis Scotland organized the Nationals Championships in the Bells Sports Centre. Calum MORRISON and Faye LEGGETT clinched the gold medals in their respective Men’s and Women’s Singles. In the final Calum MORRISON beat Martin JOHNSON. Previously for the third National Championships in a row Gavin RUMGAY and Martin JOHNSON met each other in the semi-finals and Martin ended Gavin`s quest for a 17th National Men’s title. Number two Danny BAJWA faced off against Calum MORRISON in another all left handers battle and Calum took the match in four sets to move to his first singles final. In the Women’s final Faye LEGGETT beat Rebecca PLAISTOW. Semi finalists are Lucy ELLIOTT and Ailsa KHALID. Full report you can see here.

Liam PITCHFORD and Paul DRINKHALL will return to the English National Championships this weekend after missing last year’s event. The Mark BATES Ltd National Championships is at the University of Nottingham from Friday March 24 until Sunday March 26. Last year PITCHFORD was playing in the WTT Contender Doha and DRINKHALL was injured. Both have won the men’s singles six times and if one of them wins their seventh title it would put them in second place on the all-time list behind Desmond Douglas who won 11 times. Last year’s winner Tom JARVIS is the third seed and Sam WALKER is fourth. In the Women’s Singles Maria TSAPTSINOS won last year but she has now retired from playing to concentrate on her career in TV production.   Tin-Tin HO is the overwhelming favourite to win her fifth singles title – no one else in the entry list has ever won the title.  The other top four seeds are Denise PAYET Emily BOLTON and Mollie PATTERSON. It is a young list – Bolton is the oldest of the top eight seeds at the age of 25.  In the para competitions Paralympic and Commonwealth Games medallist Ross WILSON leads the Class 6-10 entries along with Paralympic medallist Aaron MCKIBBIN and doubles world champion Billy SHILTON. Fliss PICKARD another para doubles world champion has qualified for the Women’s Singles. In the Class 2-5 singles Commonwealth Games gold and Paralympic bronze medallist Jack HUNTER-SPIVEY and Toko 2020 bronze medallist Megan SHACKLETON are the top seeds.  As well as the singles there are doubles and under-21 singles events plus two showcase para doubles matches.  PITCHFORD and DRINKHALL are top seeds in the men’s doubles HO and BOLTON are the No 1 pair in the women’s doubles and PITCHFORD and HO head the mixed doubles seedings. 

Italian Championships will take place this year for the first time in Sardegna and the venue will be PalaPirastu in Cagliari. Competition starts on Thursday (23 March) with Women’s Men’s and mixed doubles whilst the semi finals and finals are scheduled for Sunday. The titleholder in singles is Giorgia PICCOLIN (Centro Sportivo Esercito) in Women’s category and Niagol STOYANOV (Gruppo Sportivo Fiamme Azzurre) in Men’s. PICCOLIN won the last four editions (2018 2019 2021 2022) and last year in the finals beat Nikoleta STEFANOVA (CIATT Prato) who still holds the record with 11 titles (from 2001 to 2016). The other favourites are Debora VIVARELLI (Centro Sportivo Esercito) Nicole ARLIA and Gaia MONFARDINI (TT Castel Goffredo) Tan WENLING (CIATT Prato) who won in 2008 and Chiara COLANTONI (CIATT Prato). In the Men’s singles STOYANOV won three times (2014 2018 and 2022) Mihai BOBOCICA (Aeronautica Militare) six times (2007-2009-2011-2012-2013-2017 Leonardo MUTTI (Aeronautica Militare) twice (2015 e 2019) and Marco RECH DALDOSSO (Aeronautica Militare) two times too (2016 and 2021). The others who might reach the podium are Matteo MUTTI (Top Spin Messina) Antonino AMATO (Marcozzi Cagliari) Andrea PUPPO (Apuania Carrara) John OYEBODE (TT Sassari) Daniele PINTO (Gruppo Sportivo Fiamme Azzurre) Jordy PICCOLIN (Gruppo Sportivo Fiamme Azzurre) the finalist in 2022 Carlo ROSSI (Marcozzi Cagliari) Francisco SANCHI (TT Torino). In the Women’s doubles the best pairings are Giorgia PICCOLIN and Debora VIVARELLI Gaia MONFARDINI and Tan WENLING the winners of last years Nicole ARLIA and Nikoleta STEFANOVA and Chiara COLANTONI and Arianna BARANI. In the Men’s doubles John OYEBODE and Jordy PICCOLIN won last year and the other favorites are Matteo MUTTI and Leonardo MUTTI Marco RECH DALDOSSO and Alessandro BACIOCCHI Francisco SANCHI and Carlo ROSSI and Antonino AMATO and Daniele PINTO. In the mixed doubles Niagol STOYANOV and Giorgia PICCOLIN will defend the title and the other candidates to win a medal are Jordy PICCOLIN and Debora VIVARELLI John OYEBODE and Gaia MONFARDINI Carlo ROSSI and Nicole ARLIA Leonardo MUTTI and Chiara COLANTIONI Antonino AMATO and Nikoleta STEFANOVA and Marco RECH DALDOSSO and Le Thi Hong LOAN.