Medal for IONESCU and ROBLES in Men’s Doubles

April 25, 2019
7:33 pm
World Championships

LIEBHERR 2019 ITTF World Championships

Alvaro ROBLES re-writes the history books by winning the first ever medal for Spain at the World Championships. His doubles partner Ovidiu IONESCU added 47^thmedal to the long list of Romania’s successes. They reached the semi final of the LIEBHERR 2019 ITTF World Championships in Budapest.

In quarterfinal they overcame Sweden’s pairings Mattias FALCK and Kristian KARLSSON (11-5 11-7 13-11 11-9).

“Our partnership is like good marriage. It is all about good communication and understanding. We have confidence playing together and this is the result of good friendship “ said IONESCU.

IONESCU had incredible season. He won the silver medal in Singles Event at the European championships in Alicante five months ago and now he reached the medal rostrum at the Worlds.

“Everything I have been doing in past 20 years exploded now. I matured and I am experienced enough for great results. It is fantastic time for me. Even in Alicante we were close to the medal we lost in the quarterfinal ” said Ovidiu.

They beat Ma Long and XU Xin at China open to reach the silver last year.

“We decided to try to improve our rankings and to reach the place among top eight seeds. That was first task which was almost impossible but we did it. We came here as seventh seeds. Then we seized our opportunity and took the best of our seedings. We beat GADIEV and SKACHKOV of Russia 4:0 BOBOCICA and STOYANOV of Italy 4:1 GROTH and PITCHFORD of Denmark and England by same margin…There were a lot of close games but we proved better in the finishes ” said ROBLES.

Same applies for the quarterfinal match against FALCK and KARLSSON.

“They were after my backhand try to attack me but kept to my tactics. We also study their game closely and we were prepared ” added ROBLES.

They have great support from the fans.

“I am so grateful for the atmosphere that supporters from my club made. They are the part of this success ” said IONESCU.

They will meet Tiago APOLONIA and Joao MONTEIRO of Portugal in the semi final. Timo BOLL withdrew completely from the tournament. Portugal’s pairings received walk over.

WINTER: The best decision of my table tennis career

Since December 2024, Sabine WINTER’S career has followed only one direction sharply upwards. The key to this development lies in an extraordinary decision she made at that time: a complete...

From Jeju to Havířov: Eurospins Camp Continues to Unite European and Korean Youth

For the second time, young Europeans aged 13 to 16 are practicing in a joint Eurospins camp with their peers from South Korea. Last December it was in Asia, in...

ETTU celebrates 25 years of partnership with LIEBHERR

The European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) proudly marks 25 years of partnership with LIEBHERR, one of the world’s leading technology companies and a long-standing supporter of European table tennis. “For...

Webinar Social Media Conduct for Umpires and Referees attracts strong interest

As part of a new initiative, the ETTU Umpires and Referees Committee hosted a webinar dedicated to social media conduct for match officials, drawing significant interest from across the community....