China Construction Bank 2018 ITTF Europe Top 16 Cup
Bronze medalists at the Men’s Singles Event at the European Championships 2013 Gionis PANAGIOTIS for a fifth time is invited to play at the Europe’s most prestigues Event. Greek star is seeded at the position no. 14 at the China Construction Bank 2018 ITTF Europe Top 16 Cup to be played in Montreux Salle Omnisport du Pierrier.
Last year he shared position no. 9 with Jonathan GROTH (DEN) Emmanuel LEBESSON (FRA) and Marcos FREITAS (POR) whilst in 2016 he was at the same position with Simon GAUZY (FRA) Par GERELL (SWE) and Adrien MATTENET (FRA). His best result was in Baku when he was third in 2015. In 2014 GIONIS concluded the competition at he position no. 7.
“My goal at Top 16 is as always to reach the semi finals! Of course the draw plays an important role. OVTCHAROV and ΒOLL are number 1 and number 3 respectively on the World ranking list. We have to see the draw first before start talking about my odds” explained GIONIS. “I had a very good resuly in Baku but after that in last two years I did not make the appearances I was expecting”.
Last week GIONIS was playing in Hungary at the Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour. He lost in the preliminary round against LIU Dingshuo of China.
“The year started well in Hungary. I said well because due to the injury that had troubled me for a long time in Achilles tendon I had not done the full fitness preparation. However with a little luck above I could have reach the main draw.”
GIONIS talked about the competition in Swiss city.
“I think OVTCHAROV is undoubtedly the favorite in Montreux because he is in the great shape and mentaly very strong. Of course Timo BOLL is one of the most stable players and this year he has shown that he is in excellent shape already. He is like the good old wine. From there on however all players are capable of playing at the highest level but also not untouchable. I wish for Top 16 Cup to be an event of surprises.”
This will be the important step for Greek player toward his goal in this season.
“My main goal for 2018 is to be able to return to the world ranking in the top 50.”
In Montreux (on 3rd and 4th February) will play Dimitrij OVTCHAROV of Germany Timo Boll of Germany Simon GAUZY of France Vladimir SAMSONOV of Belarus Marcos FREITAS of Portugal Ruwen FILUS of Germany Kristian KARLSSON of Sweden Alexander SHIBAEV of Russia Bastian STEGER of Germany Jonathan GROTH of Denmark Emmanuel LEBESSON of France Tiago APOLONIA of Portugal Mattias KARLSSON of Sweden Panagiotis GIONIS of Greece Stefan FEGERL of Austria Lionel WEBER of Switzerland.
In Women’s Top 16 will play: LI Jie of Netherlands Elizabeta SAMARA of Romania Georgina POTA of Hungary Sofia POLCANOVA of Austria Petrissa SOLJA of Germany LI Qian of Poland Matilda EKHOLM of Sweden Daniela MONTEIRO DODEAN and Bernadette SZOCS of Romania Viktoria PAVLOVICH of Belarus NI Xia Lian of Luxembourg Polina MIKHAILOVA of Russia Sabine WINTER of Germany Tetyana BILENKO of Ukraine and Rachel MORET of Switzerland.
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Organisers web site here
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