| 10 Jun 2019

Fakel-Gazprom Orenburg topping the TTCLM seedings

The 2019/2020 seeding list: reigning TTCLM champion Fakel-Gazprom Orenburg and 11-times champion Borussia Dusseldorf are no. 1 and no. 2 respectively

 

Reigning TTCLM champion Fakel-Gazprom Orenburg (Russia) and 11-times champion Borussia Dusseldorf (Germany) are no. 1 and no. 2 respectively at the 2019/2020 seeding list. They replaced each other at the places from the previous season. The draw will be held on Friday 14th June 2019 at the ETTU office in Luxembourg, at 13:00 CET and will be live streamed.

 

Sixteen clubs from ten countries (last year nine) will compete for the TTCLM title, including four newcomers from four different national championships. They are: no. 12 seed Ping Pong Club Villeneuvois (France), no. 13 STK Starr Croatia (Croatia), no. 15 GDCS Juncal (Portugal) and no. 16 Leka Enea TDM (Spain).

 

Five-times TTCLM champion Orenburg continues with the same European line-up, Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (current world no. 12), Vladimir SAMSONOV (no. 18) and Marcos FREITAS (no. 34), while Chinese Taipei's CHUANG Chih-Yuan (no. 27) replaces China's YAN An. Other four licenced players are domestic, Alexey LIVENTSOV and Denis IVONIN.

 

Record holder, Borussia Dusseldorf is going to fight for its 12thtitle with the best ranked TTCLM player Timo BOLL (no. 6) and other familiar names from previous seasons, Kristian KARLSSON (29), Ricardo WALTHER (no. 38), Sharath Kamal ACHANTA (no. 41), Omar ASSAR (65) and Anton KALLBERG (no. 112).

 

The 2012 TTCLM semi-finalist, Saarbrucken (Germany), occupies no. 3 at the 2019/2020 seeding list. Current German Cup winner and Bundesliga runner-up signed China's SHANG Kun, while four players represented club in 2018/19 TTCLM: Patrick FRANZISKA, Darko JORGIC, Cristian PLETEA and Tomas POLANSKY. Deep Saarbrucken's roster includes Patryk ZATOWKA and Florian CNUDDE.

 

Danish side Roskilde, 2017/18 TTCLM quarter-finalist was outsider in last couple of years, but this time it starts as no. 4 seed, thanks to two newcomers, Liam PITCHFORD (no. 15) and Bojan TOKIC (55). Englishman, is currently third best ranked TTCLM player on the ITTF World Ranking List, after Timo BOLL and Dimitrij OVTCHAROV. Other players are ZHAI Yijia, Michael MAZE, Allan BENTSEN, Claus NIELSEN and Finn TUGWELL.

 

Last year's quarter-finalist, Post SV Muhlhausen (Germany, no. 5 seed) decided to keep its first line-up, Daniel HABESOHN, Ovidiu IONESCU, Lubomir JANCARIK, as well as Stefen MENGEL.

 

Actual TTCLM runner-up UMMC (Russia, no. 6) parted ways with China's FANG Bo, but strong trio continues Jonathan GROTH (no. 33), Alexander SHIBAEV (no. 72) and Andrej GACINA (76). They will be covered by three domestic players, Semen SHEVNIN, Mikhail ROZHKOV and Ilya ZHIDKOV.

 

The 2017/18 ETTU Cup winner Bogoria (Poland, no. 7) is going to play with same four players like in the previous season, Panagiotis GIONIS, Pawel SIRUCEK, Kaii KONISHI and Marek BADOWSKI.

 

French side Henebont (no. 8), actual ETTU Cup winner and former TTCLM quarter-finalist, signed Samuel WALKER of England. Belgium's Cedric NUYTINCK (no. 44) is the strongest name in the line-up, while other members of the team are FAN Sheng Peng of China and Quentin ROBINOT of France.

 

The 2018/19 semi-finalist Angers (France, no. 9 seed) will try to repeat that exploit with the same forces: Jon PERSSON, Joao GERALDO, Jens LUNDQVIST, Andrea LANDRIEU. Portugal's Sporting (no. 10) didn't change anything in its line-up, so Aruna QUADRI, Diogo CARVALHO and Bode ABIODUN are there once again.

 

From no. 11 to no. 16 on the seeding list are two clubs with an experience of playing TTCLM, no. 11 Walter Wels of Austria (PARK Ganghyeon, Frane KOJIC, Adam SZUDI, KANG Dongsoo, Alexander CHEN) and no. 14 Table Tennis Club Ostrava 2016 of Czech Republic (Felipe OLIVARES, Simon BELIK, Ondrej BAJGER, Petr KORBEL).

 

Four newcomers are occupying four out of last five spots on the seeding list: no. 12 Ping Pong Club Villeneuvois of France (Nima ALAMIAN, Yehven PRYSHCHEPA, Vildan GADIEV, Vassily LAKEEV), no. 13 STK Starr Croatia (Kenta MATSUDAIRA, Ibrahim GUNDUZ, QIU Liang, SUN Chia-Hung, TAN Ruiwu), no. 15 GDCS Juncal of Portugal (Idowo SAHEED, Mihai SARGU, Andrey BUKIN, David BESSA, Bruno SILVA) and no. 16 Leka Enea TDM of Spain (Soumyajit GHOSH, Taras MERZLIKHIN, Hampus SODERLUND, Endika DIEZ, Daniel PALACIOS).

 

2019-2020 TTCLM Seeding List

 

1 Fakel-Gazprom Orenburg (RUS) 28608

2 Borussia Düsseldorf (GER) 27179

3 1. FC Saarbrücken TT (GER) 22655

4 Roskilde Bordtennis BTK 61 (DEN) 20295

5 Post SV Mühlhausen 1951 (GER) 18582

6 TTSC UMMC (RUS) 15865

7 KS Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki (POL) 15655

8 GV Hennebont TT (FRA) 14468

9 VS Angers TT (FRA) 12188

10 Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR) 11329

11 SPG Walter Wels (AUT) 10893

12 Ping Pong Club Villeneuvois (FRA) 9829

13 STK Starr Croatia (CRO) 8938

14 Table Tennis Club Ostrava 2016 (CZE) 5985

15 GDCS Juncal (POR) 5076

16 Leka Enea TDM (ESP) 4940

 

More information: here