Martin Khatchanov beat top seeded Barry WIJERS and Michel de BOER
On Thursday May 5th Enjoy & Deploy Taverzo claimed the league title with a 3-1 victory in the final against Itass DTK’70. Unlike other years the team from Zoetermeer was not the absolute favorite. The routine and good performances of the two seeded players in the Dutch League Barry WIJERS and Michel de BOER played in the adversaries team. All together it promised to be a guarantee for an exciting fight.
In the past the team practiced at the National Training Centre in the Netherlands. This year lot of practice was done in the brand new centre in the home town of the club. Particularly Martin KHATCHANOV took the Zoetermeer centre as his base. A conscious choice for the young player clearly has found his place and he grew throughout the season to be the captain the team.
Julien INDEHERBERG the Belgian top player had a season of ups and downs after his hip surgery last summer. Last Monday Julien relapsed by an acute pain in the muscle group that ensures the movement of his leg and the hip. The player got absolute rest prescribed on doctor’s orders until the day of the finals. Coach Gerald van GRUNSVEN and manager Ruud van GRAAFEILAND chose to take a limited risk and put INDEHERBERG at position 3.
Peter Sebestyén was chosen for the last spot in the final above YANG Ming and Roel BoGie.
Manager Ruud van Graafeiland said: “Yang Ming unexpectedly had to go through a selection procedure during the season for his future academic career in China despite the fact that he had played the requisite six games to play the final we wanted to finish the season with the players who have formed the base for reaching the final. The 15 years old Roel BOGIE showed a clear progression with 11 wins in 17 games in his second year in the league. Peter Sebestyén who started the season as a backup proved more than once important to the team. First he replaced Julien and then easily took over the role of YANG Ming. “
Peter SEBESTYÉN said afterwards: “I am very happy with this title despite my earlier win against Barry Wijers I had absolutely no grip this time on his game and could therefore hardly concentrate myself on the game. If you see what Martin and Julien have shown I am proud to be part of the team and be the champion of the Netherlands. We all had great victories to get into the final and Julien Indeherberg and Martin Khatchanov actually finished it to win the title. I have always called after the departure of Ming with a smile we have three good players but one is ridiculous. Cool to see that Martin really showed that in the final.”
Enjoy & Deploy Taverzo- Itass DTK ’70 3:1
Martin KHATCHANOV – Michel de BOER 3:0 (11:9 11:7 11:7)
Peter SEBESTYEN – Barry WIJERS 0:3 (9:11 8:11 5:11)
Julien INDEHERBERG – Patrick OEij 3:0 (11:7 11:6 11:5)
Martin KHATCHANOV – Barry WIJERS 3:0 (11:5 11:9 11:7)
