The best Table Tennis teams in Europe will begin competing to be crowned Europe’s best team at the TMS 2014 European Team Table Tennis Championships, which starts today, 24 September 2014 in Lisbon, Portugal.
37 women’s and 43 men’s team will make the trip to Lisbon, hoping to secure the prestigious European Team crowns that both the German women’s and men’s team won at the LIEBHERR 2013 European Championships in Austria.
Germany will again be the favorites, after the women finished fith and the men runner up at the ZEN-NOH 2014 ITTF World Championships held in May this year, which was the best result of any European team.
The German women will have to battle past a number of strong opponents, including the Netherlands and Romania, who both finished equal fith with them at the World Team Championships.
On the challenge of beating Germany, Netherland’s Britt EERLAND stated: “I am excited to again be joining up with my Dutch team mates to play in such a high level event. We exceeded all of our expectations at the World Championships, and we want to use that experience and confidence to make a run for the title here in Portugal.”
The German men are looking to continue their dominance of European table tennis, which has seen them win the past six European Team Championships, stretching back to 2007.
Despite this, 2014 could be the year the German’s winning streak is broken, as Patrick BAUM has withdrawn from the Championships after his father was tragically killed in a car crash. Star player and world number five Dimitrij OVTCHAROV is also in doubt for the event after getting his four wisdom teeth removed last week and will miss the start of the event.
Due to the late withdrawals, Germany will not be able to replace BAUM, or OVTCHAROV if he is not fit, so could be left with a threadbare team of Timo BOLL, Patrick FRANZISKA and Steffen MENGEL in Portugal.
The Portuguese team, lead by world number 12 and European Cup champion Marcos FREITAS is ready to topple the Germans on their home turf:
“If we will pass the group we will have very good chance for medal. We have a strong team and all the players are in good shape. We will play game by game without thinking that we can win the title and not worrying about other teams around us.
We really expect a lot of support from the spectators. We are a young team, so we are looking forward to playing in front of our fans at home”
The action from the MEO Arena in Lisbon today 24 September 2014, with the finals being held on Sunday 28 September 2014.
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