Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) and LIU Jia (AUT) have qualified for the 2015 ITTF Men’s & Women’s World Cups by striking gold at the NN Table Tennis Club 2015 ITTF-Europe Top 16 Cup held in Baku, Azerbaijan from 6 – 8 February 2015.
The NN Table Tennis Club 2015 ITTF-Europe Top 16 Cup is the European continental qualifications for the Men’s & Women’s World Cups later in the year, with the top three placed players gaining direct qualification to the prestigious events.
In a tense final against Marcos FREITAS (POR), OVTCHAROV recovered from 3-1 deficit to overcome the defending champion in a 7-games thriller (10-12, 11-7, 9-11, 8-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-4).
After his victory, the top seeded German shared “Actually I was not playing badly, I was in the lead in the first game, but when I lost it, it gave advantage to Marcos. He played very well today, and I had to give my best.”
“It was especially difficult in the final after the tough semifinal against Panagiotis. After that tense semifinal match, the main task for me was to calm down and to prepare myself for the final” added the 26-year-old who won his semifinal against Panagiotis GIONIS (GRE) by the slightest margins.
For the Women’s gold medal match, surprise finalist Petrissa SOLJA (GER) could not repeat the success of her male counterpart, losing to the defending champion, LIU Jia (AUT) in 5 games (3-11, 14-12, 8-11, 3-11, 9-11).
The top seeded Austrian had an error-free performance in the final and joked that she had played like a machine. “I think Petrissa was a little bit nervous, and on the other hand, I played one of my best matches here.”
Other than OVTCHAROV & LIU, Marcos FREITAS (POR) and Panagiotis GIONIS (GRE), as well as Petrissa SOLJA (GER) and Irene IVANCAN (GER), who took the second and third places in the Men’s & Women’s Singles respectively, have also gained direct qualifications to the 2015 ITTF Men’s & Women’s World Cups.
With the NN Table Tennis Club 2015 ITTF-Europe Top 16 Cup concluded, all eyes now turn to the first Super Series of the US$3,000,000 GAC Group 2015 World Tour in Kuwait, which starts on 11 Feb 2015.
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