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Germany, represented by Timo Boll, Christian Süss and Dimitrij Ovtcharov, the top seed in the Men’s Team event at the Liebherr European Championships in Stuttgart duly finished the opening day of play, Sunday 13th September 2009, unbeaten by beating Spain (represented by Alfredo Carneros, Carlos Machado, Jesus Cantero) with a three-nil victory and Denmark (represented by of Kasper Sternberg, Finn Tugwell and Jonathan Groth) with a three-nil victory.

Belarus, the number two seeds, were also unbeaten with a hard fought three-two victory over Serbia with as has happened time and again in the past, the mainstay being Vladimir Samsonov. He beat both Marco Jevtovic and Aleksandar Karakasevic with Evguenij Chtchetinine adding the one vital win by beating Jevtovic in the vital last match of the duel. The Serbian wins came from Aleksandar Karakasevic against Chtchetinine and from Zolt Pete in opposition to Vitaly Nekhvedovich.

A close call against Serbia but more comfortable in opposition to Romania where a three-nil success was posted against the trio of Adrian Crisan, Andrei Filimon and Constantin Cioti.

The third seeds, Belgium suffered a reverse scenario. They suffered three-two defeats against both Sweden and Hungary.

For Austria, it was mixed fortunes in two fixtures that went the full distance. They beat Russia but lost to Croatia. Victory over Russia was principally due to wins for Chen Weixing over Fedor Kuzmin and Alexei Smirnov with Robert Gardos overcoming Kuzmin in the vital last match of the duel. The Russian wins came from Alexei Smirnov in opposition to Robert Gardos and from Igor Rubtsov against Werner Schlager.

Meanwhile, against Croatia, the experienced Zoran Primorac beat both Chen Weixing and Werner Schlager whilst Roko Tosic won the vital third match of the duel, defeating Robert Gardos by the very narrowest of five game margins. The wins for Austria both came against Andrei Gacina with Werner Schlager and Chen Weixing being the successful players

(Note : Excerpts from ITTF News)

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Women Team Event
Netherlands, the defending champions (represented by of Li Jiao, Li Jie and Elena Timina), made a positive start to retaining their Women’s Singles title in Stuttgart by recording a brace of wins. They defeated Germany by three matches to two and Italy just slightly more comfortably by recording a three-one win.

However, for second seeds Hungary, suffered defeats against both the Czech Republic (Czech won three-one) and Poland (represented by Li Xian, Xu Jie and Natalia Partyka) .
For the third and fourth seeded teams, Croatia & Romania achieved success.
Croatia beat Austria three-two and Belarus three-one with Tamara Boros defeated Martina Petzner and Liu Jia with Cornelia Vaida securing a three-two victory with success over Martina Petzner; the wins for Austria came from Liu Jia against Cornelia Vaida and from Li qiangbing in opposition to Andrea Bakula. Meanwhile, against Belarus, Boros overcame both Veronika and Viktoria Pavlovich with Cornelia Vaida giving valuable support by overcoming Alexandra Privalova; the one Belarus success came by way of Viktoria Pavlovich in opposition to Andrea Bakula.

Romania beat Spain by three matches to two and France by three matches to one.

(Note : Excerpts from ITTF News)

[varghese]

I'm working on to get some videos for you guys.

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German TV station ZDF will have livestreaming of the above through the following link :
http://sport.zdf.de/ZDFsport/inhalt/28/ ... 36,00.html

It's not clear whether this will be the same as on ettutv.com, but my guess is not the same, and the quality will probably be better. On the other hand, it may not be available outside Germany.

In any case, let's hope varghese can come up with something; else it is back to relying on ITTF (if any).

The website for timetable, TV schedule, etc.:
http://em2009.tischtennis.de/en/news/

[729 fx]

My prediction of the winners in the European Championships :

Mens Singles:
Winner - Timo Boll
R/up – Vladimir Samsonov

Mens Doubles:
Winner - Timo Boll and Christian Suss
R/up - Vladimir Samsonov and Kalinikos Kreanga

Mens Team:
Winner - Germany
R/up - Belarus

Womens Singles:
Winner – Wu Jiaodo
R/up - Jiao Li

Womens Doubles:
Winner - Jiao Li and Tamara Boros
R/up - Li Qian and Xian Yi Fang

Womans Team:
Winner - Netherland
R/up - Germany

[varghese]

The ITTF may not get the videos.

[ejunkie]

Hey Varghese, you should like the Netherlands (represented by of Li Jiao, Li Jie and Elena Timina), two defensive players!

[729 fx]

You may be right, varghese.

News Update
Germany, the reigning European Men’s Team champions won their quarter-final duels on Monday 14th September 2009 in Stuttgart. They beat Sweden by three matches to one with Timo Boll the mainstay of success. Boll beat both Robert Svensson and Pår Gerell in straight games with the one further win coming from Dimitrij Ovtcharov who overcame Fabian Akerstrom by the narrowest of five game margins. The one success for Sweden came in the first match of the duel with Pår Gerell defeating Christian Süss.

As for the second seeds, Belarus, it was defeated by Austria with Werner Schlager, the 2003 Men’s Singles World champion, being the architect of the Austrian success. He beat both Vitaly Nekhvedovich and Vladimir Samsonov with support coming from Chen Weixing in a three-one success. In the vital third match of the duel, Chen Weixing defeated Evgueni Chtchetinine in three straight games. Similar to Sweden, the one success for the vanquished came in the very first match of the contest with Vladimir Samsonov defeating Robert Gardos.

Romania recorded a three-two win over Croatia principally thanks to the efforts of the Andrei Filimon at the quarter-final stage. He beat Zoran Primorac in the first match of the duel and with the match score level he accounted for Andrei Gacina in the final encounter of the fixture.
The remaining win for Romania came from Adrian Crisan in oppsition to Zoran Primorac whilst for Croatia, Andrei Gacina defeated Adrian Crisan and Roko Tosic defeated Constantin Cioti.

The last quarter-finals involved Denmark and Czech Republic. The Dane recorded a comfortable victory with Michael Maze beat Dimitrij Prokopcov, Finn Tugwell accounted for Petr Korbel and Martin Monrad beat Josef Simoncik.

(Note : Excerpts from ITTF News)

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News Update - Women
France suffered a three-one defeat against Spain but finished in second place in their group and thus secured a passage to the second stage on Monday 14th September. France, Spain and Russia all recorded one victory each; they all fell against Romania but in the matches between the three countries none could establish a clear advantage. Finally the match ratio decided the outcome.
France opened their account with a three-nil win over Russia who then beat Spain by three matches to nil. The contest between France and Spain was therefore vital with France needing to win just one match to secure the decision. In the end, a three-one defeat was just sufficient provided Romania defeated Russia.

Romania duly obliged with the trio of Elizabeta Samara, Daniela Dodean and Andrea Dospina posting a three-one win over the Russian trio of Svetlana Ganina, Irina Kotikhina and Elena Troshneva.

The final positions in the remaining groups were decided by a more precise margin.
First, Netherlands, the defending champions, represented by Li Jiao, Li Jie and Elena Timina recorded a three-nil win over Turkey’s He Sirin, Hu Melek and Fulya Ozler to emerge in top place in Group A with Germany in second place.

Secondly, in Group `B’, Poland finished in a first place with the Czech Republic second, the two meeting in the last encounter in the group; victory went the way of the Poland with Li Qian defeating both Renata Strbikova and Iveta Vacenovska whilst Xu Jie also accounted for Vacenovska.
The win for the Czech Republic came from Dana Hadecova, she beat Natalia Partyka.

Thirdly, a place in the last eight for Croatia and Belarus in Group C. Croatia defeated Ukraine by three matches to one whilst by the same margin, Belarus overcame Austria.

Quarter-Finals
At the quarter-final stage it is Netherlands versus Belarus, Czech Republic versus Romania, Croatia versus France and Germany versus Poland.

(Note : Excerpts from ITTF News)

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News Update - Men Team
OK, looks like the Final will be between Germany, the reigning champions, and Denmark, the 2005 champions, at the Men’s Team event at the Liebherr European Championships in Stuttgart following semi-final successes on Tuesday 15th September 2009.

At the penultimate stage Germany defeated Romania by three matches to nil whilst, in a much closer duel, Denmark recorded a three-two win over Austria.

Dimitrij Ovtcharov gave Germany the perfect start by beating Adrian Crisan before Timo Boll accounted for Constantin Cioti and Christian Süss brought matters to an end with victory over Andrei Filimon.

Michael Maze beat both Robert Gardos and crucially Werner Schlager in the “match of the day” to steer the Aarhus 2005 champions to victory. Maze is definately the backbone of the Danish team.
The one remaining win came from Martin Monrad against Robert Gardos with for Austria, Stefen Fegerl, replacing Chen Weixing, defeated Finn Tugwell and Werners Schlager accounted for Martin Monrad. ”This is the sport on its best, I have great respect for Schlager and we manage to pull out the best of each other”, said Michael Maze “All the team was supportive and helped with their great attitude.”

At the European Table Tennis Championship, racket testing provides some drama. The controversy regarding the racket was that Ovtcharov’s orgiginal racket was deemed too thick in the test carried out before the match. He used a spare racket but during the match he damaged his second racket and therefore had to use a third. Luckily for him, the third racket was pass the test after the game.

News Update - Women Team
The defending champions, Netherlands, will meet Poland in the final of the Women’s Team event at the Liebherr European Championships following the quarter and semi-final matches played on Tuesday 15th September 2009. Both teams were in fine form, neither being stretched the full five matches.

Poland recorded three-one wins over Germany and Croatia whilst the Netherlands defeated Belarus and the Czech Republic.

(Note : Excerpts from ITTF News)