Champions League Men | 3 May 2016

TTCLM final: Historic moment for Eslovs

The first final leg between Swedish champion and AS Pontoise Cergy will be held on Saturday, May 7th (16:00)

 

The TTCLM final will be held for the very first time in one Swedish city this Saturday (May 7th, 16:00), as Eslovs Al Bordtennis hosts 2014 TTCLM winner AS Pontoise Cergy from France. Usually, top ranked clubs fight for the crown, but this time no. 14 seed goes down in history. It never happened before, having one finalist with such low seeding place.

 

Actual ETTU Cup champion Eslovs had 6-4 score in the ongoing season and 1-1 against Pontoise in the Group C. XU Hui & Company beat French champion away 3:2, but lost at home 3:1. XU and Marcos FREITAS confirmed their leading roles in these clashes, having each 3-1 score (other Eslovs players Robert SVENSSON 1-2, Mattias OVERSJO 0-2, Pontoise - Kristian KARLSSON 0-3, WANG Jian Jun 1-0, Tristan FLORE 1-0)

 

The game in Eslovs (October 31st) was a turning point for FREITAS (in that moment 3-3 score) who managed to win 11 consecutive matches in the following rounds (6-0 in Group C, 5-0 in the knockout stages).

 

XU Hui is the player with the most matches played in the 2015/16 TTCLM. Chinese has 15-4 individual score and 1-1 against Portuguese, actual world`s no. 13. Other individual records are - Eslovs: Robert SVENSSON 6-8, Mattias OVERSJO 5-4, Pontoise: Kristian KARLSSON 5-8, Tristan FLORE 4-0, WANG Jian Jun 3-4.

 

Pontoise arrives in Eslovs with a lot of confidence, as they eliminated two most powerful European clubs in the last ten years, Borussia Dusseldorf (quarter-finals) and reigning champion Fakel Gazproma Orenburg (semis). Two years ago they were underdog in the final against Orenburg`s stars Dimitrij OVTCHAROV, Vladimir SAMSONOV and Alexey SMIRNOV, but now they must deal with a pressure of favorite.