In the Croatia’s Women’s Superleague, nothing new Dr. Časl’s table tennis team has claimed their 10th consecutive Croatian national championship title, and 12th overall.
Heading into the final round, the Zagreb-based team held a significant lead over their only title contender, Aquaestil from Duga Resa. Although they were practically guaranteed the trophy, the team left nothing to chance. They fielded their strongest lineup and secured convincing 3:1 victories against Sveta Nedelja and in the derby against Aquaestil. This season, they recorded 15 wins and only 1 loss.
After a morning win over Sveta Nedelja, Dr. Časl only needed to win a set against Aquaestil to officially secure the title. However, they could already begin celebrating even before that match started. Namely, Aquaestil lost 3:1 to Mladost Tia Mobiteli for the second time this season, eliminating their theoretical chances of taking the title. What’s more, that defeat cost them second place as they later lost the derby against Dr. Časl.
Aquaestil, who had finished second in the league for two years in a row and missed the runner-up spot only once in the last seven seasons, now ends the season in third place with the same win-loss record (12–4) as second-placed Mladost Tia Mobiteli.
The Zagreb side from the Sava River recorded their best result since the 2014/15 season when they shocked the league by winning the title—back then, they surprised Dr. Časl in the playoffs. Since then, the title has been reserved exclusively for Dr. Časl, and all signs suggest that the dominance will continue.
“Of course, we’re continuing in the same rhythm, and now we’ve finally won something ten times. The only motivation left is to win the Europe Cup, it’s the only trophy missing from our collection.
We’ve won the Champions League, Central European League, Mediterranean Cup, Europe Trophy, Superleague, Croatian Cup… It’s only fair we try to add that one too, but we’ll see.
My philosophy is that when we enter a competition, we want to have a realistic chance of winning. Of course, it would be great to win, but it’s not a matter of life or death. We’ve played both men’s and women’s ETTU Cup multiple times but never went beyond the quarterfinals,” said Martin Tino ČASL, club President. The championship team featured NI Xia Lian, Mirela ĐURAK BLAŽIČEVIĆ, LIU Jiaqi, Tamolwan KHETKHUAN, LEE Ho Ching, Bruna BOROVEC, Dorina SREBRNJAK, and coach Luka VRANČIĆ.
