The penultimate day of matches in the group phase at the ITTF World Championships in Busan did not bring surprises. In seven out of eight groups favorites concluded the day with four wins topping their groups: China Germany Korea France Japan Sweden and Portugal. The only exception is Group 7 where Slovenia currently holds the top position. The team ranked 12th in the world has already surpassed Brazil with one match less. While Brazil played all four matches and won two Slovenia already has three wins in three matches. Today Darko JORGIC Deni KOZUL and Peter HRIBAR overcame Canada. Tomorrow they will face Madagascar while Singapore will try to beat Canada to surpass Brazil for the second position in the group. In Group 1 where China is at the top Belgium recorded their first win in three matches. Today they defeated Cuba with all three players—Adrien RASSENFOSSE Cedric NUYTINCK and Martin ALLEGRO—posting victories. In Group 2 Germany remained unbeaten in all four matches. In their last match of the opening stage they overcame England 3-0. Dang QIU prevailed against Samuel WALKER at the beginning of the match. “It was good for us to finish on top in the group stage. For the rest of the tournament it’s important to secure the seeding position. I don’t think it’s a fact that England prepared less. We’re just a strong team. It’s tough to beat us. We have very strong players and everyone is doing more than I can ask for ” said Dimitrij OVTCHAROV who beat Tom JARVIS. “We were very determined to secure the victory today since it was a match for the number one spot in the group stage. On the other hand they didn’t play with their top player Liam PITCHFORD today. Since he has an injury that gave us an advantage on the setup. We are fighting for a medal. We will take anything but gold would be best ” commented OVTCHAROV on his win. Patrick FRANZISKA dropped only one game against Paul DRINKHALL. “We feel very happy and relieved. It was our big goal to secure first place in the qualification for the seeding. More important than that we played better and better as every match went on. Today all three of us played really well ” said FRANZISKA. Korea secured their top place in Group 3 whilst Poland with a win over New Zealand currently occupies second place with one round yet to play tomorrow. In today’s duel Jakub DYJAS Samuel KULCZYCKI and Maciej KUBIK overcame Maxwell HENDERSON Timothy CHOI and Alfred DELA PENA in straight matches. France was heading towards the knockout stage of the competition at full speed. In the last match in their group against Australia they played without the LEBRUN brothers but that did not affect their performance. Simon GAUZY Lilian BARDET and Jules ROLLAND sealed the duel in three matches to finish the group stage unbeaten at the top with wins over Austria Denmark Australia and Algeria. Jules ROLLAND said “It is great for Alexis and Felix to have an opportunity to take some rest today. We have one day for rest tomorrow so we think we’ll be ready for the round of 16.” Simon GAUZY added “We’re very excited for the round of 16. We practice every day and have a very strong team spirit so we’re looking forward. We can’t wait after tomorrow and we’re going to have Korean BBQ tomorrow.” Lilian BARDET expressed “Personally I’m very happy about my win today because it’s my first match for my national team. It was a really close match and we did a very great job 3-0 against Australia. Now we’re happy to be in the round of 16 and will prepare for the upcoming match.” In the same group Denmark overcame Algeria 3-1 with Jonathan GROTH winning both his matches against Abdelbasset CHAICHI and Mehdi BOULOUSSA. Anders LIND also beat Mehdi. Tomorrow they will play against Austria. Jonathan GROTH said “Right now we’re happy to have won our match. We need to recover now and look forward to tomorrow’s match. We’ve actually played quite a few times against Austria before who are our last opponent for the knockout qualification. They are a very strong team with good players. It will be a tough match. Last time we lost 3-1.” France played all four matches and remained unbeaten while Denmark Austria Australia and Algeria have one remaining match each. Denmark and Austria currently share the second position. In Group 8 Portugal concluded the first stage of the competition unbeaten in four matches. Their latest “victim” was Thailand. Tiago APOLONIA Diogo CARVALHO and Joao GERALDO all posted victories. Tiago APOLONIA commented “So far we’re very happy that we finished the group stage in first place and now we have one and a half days to rest and prepare for the next match. We’ll start thinking about the next round after a break.” Joao GERALDO added “For today I think I could have played a little bit better even though I achieved a good result. I tried to be more relaxed but I think I felt a bit of pressure and tension for this game to try to get a win before the final stage.”

After three days of action at the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships in Busan three European teams remain undefeated at the top of their respective groups. Germany Romania and France each recorded three wins bringing them one step closer to the main draw. In Group 1 China continues to dominate without any issues. Currently Spain holds the second position after tonight’s defeat against the group leader. Spain also suffered a loss against Hungary but managed to defeat Uzbekistan. Hungary on the other hand lost to India tonight. In Group 2 Japan sits at the top with three wins while Luxembourg is at the bottom with two defeats in two matches. In Group 3 Germany showed superb performance by defeating Nigeria. Sabine WINTER Nina MITTELHAM and Annett KAUFMANN showed no mercy. “I approached the table with focus and was able to play at my level ” said Sabine WINTER who played the opening singles match against Nigeria’s lead player. “Offiong EDEM has good skills. You can’t underestimate her.” Looking ahead to Monday the two-time World Championship bronze medalist commented: “Against Slovakia we are the favorites. I am confident that we will secure the group victory.” In the same group Poland defeated Slovakia 3-0. Katarzyna WEGRZYN Natalia BAJOR and Anna WEGRZYN prevailed against Tatiana KUKULKOVA Barbora BALAZOVA and Ema LABOSOVA. In Group 4 Chinese Taipei leads with three wins. In Group 5 Korea is at the top also unbeaten in three matches. Italy follows in second place with two wins out of three matches. Giorgia PICCOLIN Nikoleta STEFANOVA and Gaia MONFARDINI overcame Estela CRESPO Daniela FONSECA and Rosalba Aguiar CARRAZANA. The women’s team of Austria recorded their first win in Group 6 defeating Kazakhstan in straight matches. Meanwhile in the same group Portugal suffered at the hands of players from Hong Kong. Austria previously lost to Hong Kong and Portugal but today they beat Kazakhstan in straight matches. Sofia POLCANOVA beat Zauresh AKASHEVA LIU Jia prevailed against Sarvinoz MIRKADIROVA and Karoline MISCHEK beat Anastassiya LAVROVA. Hong Kong is at the top. Romania maintains the top spot in Group 7 with three wins in three days. They overcame Singapore in their latest match. Bernadette SZOCS Elizabeta SAMARA and Adina DIACONU prevailed against ZHOU Jiangyu ZENG Jian and SER Lin Qian. Only ZENG won one match while SZOCS scored twice. In the same group after a two-and-a-half-hour fight Sweden overcame Serbia in five matches. Cristina KALLBERG played a crucial role in the team’s success with an opening win against Sabina surjan and a victory in the fifth match against Andrea Todorovic. The turning point in the match was SURJAN’S defeat after being up 2-1 for Serbia and 2-1 for SURJAN against Linda BERGSTROM. BERGSTROM leveled to win the match 3-2 with an 11-7 victory in the last game. Linda BERGSTROM reflected on the challenging match: “It was really difficult to win this game; it took every bit of energy we had left. Yesterday was a very hard day but somehow we managed together as a team and I’m proud of these girls.” In Group 8 France defeated Egypt to secure their third victory in the opening stage of the Championships. Prithika PAVADE Jia Nan YUAN and Charlotte LUTZ prevailed against Dina MESHREF Hana GODA and Yousra HELMY. In the same group Croatia prevailed against Czechia in straight matches. Hana ARAPOVIC Lea RAKOVAC and Mateja JEGER beat Zdena BLASKOVA Hana MATELOVA and Linda ZADEROVA.

In their debut appearance at the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships in Busan Slovenia caused an upset in the rankings by defeating Singapore whilst other European favorites continued their momentum from the previous day. The second-seeded Germany runners-up in five out of the last six World Championships left Kazakhstan without any chances with a 3-0 victory. Benedikt DUDA defeated Ali ALKHADRAWI Dimitrij OVTCHAROV justified his position against Abdulaziz SHULAYBI and European champion Dang QIU defeated Turki ALMUTAIRI. Germany did not drop a game in two matches so far. “We played confidently. It was okay ” said Benedikt DUDA who played his first singles match in Busan against the opponent’s number one Abdulaziz Bu SHULAYBI. “From tomorrow onwards tougher opponents will come.” Led by Darko JORGIC who secured two wins Slovenia defeated Singapore. Three-time winner of the Europe Top 16 Cup Darko defeated Izaac QUEK and PANG Yew En Koen. Peter HRIBAR added the third point with a victory over CHEW Zhe Yu Clarence. Austria defeated New Zealand: Robert GARDOS Daniel HABESOHN and Andreas LEVENKO overcame Nicholas LUM Finn LUU and Aditya SEREEN. Unlike the Hungarian women’s team which defeated Spain today the men’s team suffered at the hands of Croatia’s players. Tomislav PUCAR won both his matches against Adam SZUDI and Csaba ANDRAS. ANDRAS also suffered a defeat in the match against Andrej GACINA. The leaders in Group 6 Sweden overcame Puerto Rico in straight matches. Kristian KARLSSON defeated Angel NARANJO after a five-game match. “My physical and mental condition was good today. I played against a good opponent who managed to catch me off guard a couple of times with his strong forehands and good serve. It was a tough first match for me in the tournament but I’m happy to have won it. I had a good timeout in the fifth game which was pretty crucial. Then I got to 10-5 and managed to win at 11-8. So I’m very happy with the match ” said Kristian. Mattias FALCK succeeded against Brian AFANDOR in the opening match of the duel. “All matches here are always tough. You have to play at a high level all the time. Now there is no big difference between all the table tennis players. But I’m happy that we got another 3-0 victory. So it feels good for us ” said Mattias. Anton KALLBERG said “Next match tomorrow we play against Hong Kong which is the group final probably. So of course we have to bring our A game and be even better than before. And I think we all show good form so far.” The French team recorded their second win. Simon GAUZY Alexis LEBRUN and Jules ROLLAND overcame Algeria with Milhane JELLOULI Abdelbasset CHAICHI and Mehdi BOULOUSSA. Regarding the change in the lineup Alexis LEBRUN said “We do not know the specific reason for the change from yesterday’s match. But I think it is good for the team because we won. The coach assigned positions and we did our best to win.” Romania’s Eduard IONESCU Ovidiu IONESCU and Darius MOVILEANU overcame Egypt with Omar ASSAR Youssef ABDEL-AZIZ and Mohamed EL-BEIALI. England was stretched to the full five matches against Kazakhstan. Kirill GERASSIMENKO proved too strong for both Paul DRINKHOL and Liam PITCHFORD but there were no others to follow his path so PITCHFORD DRINKHALL and Tom JARVIS prevailed against the rest of Kazakhstan’s team. “We had good team spirit and were prepared for a tough match. We knew that they are a good and dangerous team. Every match here will be difficult and it’s good to win the match ” said Paul DRINKHALL. “We know how to win the other three matches. For me it was tough to come back from injury not so long ago and there were two days to practice. The first match was not great but I felt like I played better in the second match. Winning a medal at the World Championships is never easy and not many European teams have done it. These days all the teams get stronger so we need to be prepared for every tough match. It was a tough match to play against Kirill and it was a close match. In the last game he didn’t miss many easy balls and it was a good rally. Hopefully I can build on the match and get better and better for the next match ” said Liam PITCHFORD. England won bronze in 2016 in Kuala Lumpur with Liam and Paul being in that team. In the final match of the day Portugal prevailed against Iran. Marcos FREITAS recorded two wins; he beat Nima ALAMIAN and Noshad ALAMIYAN in both occasions in full five games. Joao GERALDO lost to Noshad while Tiago APOLONIA beat Amir Hossein HODAEI.

In the Women’s Teams Event at the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships in Busan on the second day of play top European teams secured victories while Italy caused an upset by beating Puerto Rico. The best-seeded European team at the Championships ranked No. 3 in the World Germany succeeded against Mexico. They recorded a smooth 3-0 victory against the team ranked 34th in the world rankings. Nina MITTELHAM Xiaona SHAN and 17-year-old Annett KAUFMANN who made her debut in Busan didn’t give the Central American trio any chance in the match lasting only 75 minutes. “I am very pleased that we won the game 3-0 ” said leading player MITTELHAM. “Whether we lose one more game or not doesn’t matter in the end.” It was the first match of a German national team against Mexico in the 99-year history of the German Table Tennis Association. “For me the nervousness is higher on the bench when I’m not playing than when I’m playing ” explained the youth European champion of all categories KAUFMANN for whom this is already the third World Championship participation with the women in South Korea. The No. 12 seed Portugal was stretched to the full distance in the duel against Austria currently occupying position No. 21. Austria had a 2-0 lead after LIU Jia beat SHAO Jieni and Sofia POLCANOVA overcame YU Fu but the pendulum swung after the match between Ines MATOS and Anastasia STERNER when Portugal took control and recovered to win the match. Another thriller was played in Group 1 where Hungary prevailed against Spain after a long five matches. Maria XIAO won both her encounters but it was insufficient because on the other side Georgina POTA Dora MADARASZ and Bernadett BALINT all scored for Hungary. France Women’s team beat Ukraine. Only in the opening duel was the French team under pressure. Prithika PAVADE went the full distance against Solomiya BRATEYKO. Jian Nan YUAN and Charlotte LUTZ posted straight games wins. Slovakia’s Tatiana KUKULKOVA Barbora BALAZOVA and Ema LABOSOVA posted a victory against Nigeria in straight matches while Italy was stretched to the full distance against Puerto Rico. Adriana DIAZ was unbeatable today so Nikoleta STAFANOVA Giorgia PICCOLIN and Gaia MONFARDINI all had to be at the top of their game. “We feel great. It was an important match because we know that the first player from Puerto Rico is very good. So we had to win against the other players ” said Giorgia PICCOLIN. “Yesterday we prepared for this encounter. We analyzed the matches and talked together giving each other ideas about tactics and everything ” added Gaia MONFARDINI. The leader in Group 7 Romania beat Canada who played without Mo ZHANG. Elizabeta SAMARA Bernadette SZOCS and Adina DIACONU recorded a 3-0 win. Sweden needed the full five matches to upset the favorite Singapore in the last match of the program today. Kristina KALLBERG recorded two wins against ZENG Jian and ZHOU Jingyu while Lina BERGSTROM suffered at the hands of both players. Filippa BERGAND overcame WAONG Xin Ru.

The first day of play at the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships in Busan saw the third-seeded Germany and the seventh-seeded Romania secure victories against Poland and Sweden respectively. Additionally the eighth-seeded France defeated Czechia Spain won against Uzbekistan and Serbia scored a surprising victory over Canada. The Germany Women’s team defeated the Poland Women’s Team in four matches although their opponents tested them. In a nearly three-hour-long match Nina MITTELHAM defeated Katarzyna WEGRZYN 3-2 and also overcame Natalia BAJOR in five games. Xiaona SHAN lost to BAJOR while Sabine WINTER prevailed against Zuzanna WIELGOS in straight games. Nina MITTELHAM commented “It was a really difficult match. I was just trying to play ball by ball because I knew they can play quite well they had good results in the past. First matches in the tournament are always difficult so I am really happy that we were able to win our match even if it was really close. But this just can push us a little bit more and hopefully tomorrow we can also play a little bit better. From the team spirit and from the fighting it was a really good match so I am satisfied.” Sabine WINTER said “We are going to have a nice and fast dinner I guess we will have a good sleep or I hope it will be a good sleep and I guess tomorrow we will talk about our plan and our draw the play and we will watch some videos of our opponents and I am sure we will be ready tomorrow.” Romania overcame Sweden in superb fashion: Bernadette SZOCS Elizabeta SAMARA and Adina DIACONU all recorded straight games wins over Christina KALLBERG Linda BERGSTROM and Filippa BERGAND. Elizabeta SAMARA said “I believe it was the unity of the team that made the difference. It was our first match which is never easy. My teammates gave me a lot of confidence but playing at 2-0 was still challenging because every match is crucial. I focused on adapting to the hall environment as well. Given that it was our first match it was particularly important. I maintained a high level of focus in every game and I’m pleased that we didn’t drop any matches today. We prepared extensively for these World Championships because they serve as a qualification criterion for the Olympics. Therefore we are physically and mentally well-prepared.” Adina DIACONU said “I lost two years ago so this time I approached the match with better tactics. We will treat every match as if it were the final. We will discuss our upcoming match against Canada tomorrow morning.” France led by the recent Europe Top 16 Cup winner YUAN Jia Nan succeeded in full five matches against Czechia. Spain’s Maria XIAO clinched two wins against Kazakhstan’s Rozalina KHADJIEVA and Markhabo MAGDIEVA while Sofia-Xuan ZHANG also managed to record a victory over MAGDIEVA and Maria BERZOSA lost to Rimma GUFRANOVA. Serbia’s women’s team like the men’s team created an upset and overcame Canada. Sabina SURJAN recorded wins over Zhang MO and Ivy LIAO while Andrea TODOROVIC beat Jessie XU. Zhang beat Izabela LUPULESKU. “I managed to restore my rhythm after Mo was 2-1 in advance. I put more variation in my speed and it gave me a 2-2 and 9-3 lead. Then Mo sped up her service threw me out of rhythm and leveled. In a close finish I put my game together to win and prevent the risky fifth duel ” explained SURJAN.

At the onset of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in Busan 2024 the second-seeded men’s team from Germany launched their campaign successfully with a victory over the USA. Following their lead the fourth-seeded team from France secured a win against Denmark. Czechia defeated Madagascar and Hungary emerged victorious against Cuba. European champions Sweden triumphed over Slovakia while the eighth-seeded Portugal overcame Romania. Among the European teams Serbia surprised the odds and prevailed against Puerto Rico. In the German team the record European champion Timo BOLL was absent and the Olympic record medalist Dimitrij OVTCHAROV arrived later and played with new equipment. However Germany’s men displayed no weaknesses in their first group match against the underdog USA. The German team secured a 3-0 victory against the 21st-ranked team in the world without dropping a game with Patrick FRANZISKA Dang QIU and Dimitrij OVTCHAROV leading the charge. “The Americans are always tough opponents because they take high risks. They have an aggressive serve-return game. Therefore our 3-0 win and 9-0 were good victories ” said men’s national team coach Jörg ROSSKOPF. “We started the tournament well. Things are going well.” The United States will have to proceed without their top player TTBL player Kanak JHA for another month. The 23-year-old World Championship quarter-finalist from Houston was suspended for a year by the US Anti-Doping Agency USADA after repeated missed doping controls. His suspension will end in mid-March. Timo BOLL suffering from an eye inflammation has not yet been able to travel to South Korea. He is undergoing treatment in Germany and has another doctor’s appointment on Friday. “After that it will be decided whether he will still come or not. We have the option that he could still travel and play until the last day but if there has been no improvement of course it makes no sense. To clarify this he is still with the doctor today ” explained Coach ROSSKOPF after the USA game. In another match the French team defeated Denmark 3-1. Felix LEBRUN won both his matches against Jonathan GROTH 3-2 and Anders LIND 3-0. “We feel very good. Denmark is a strong opponent so we’re lucky to win today. The first match was very important. Alexis also pointed one and it was really important ” said Felix. Alexis Lebrun beat Tobias RASMUSSEN 3-0 while LIND prevailed against Simon GAUZY in a full-distance encounter. “We knew Denmark is a tough team to face and we took the match with the right mindset. They have 2 top players so we knew it would be tough but we handled it well ” explained GAUZY. Serbia ranked at position no. 39 created an upset by beating the world’s no. 26 Puerto Rico 3-1. The backbone of the team’s success was Dimitrije LEVAJAC who defeated both Brian AFANDOR and Daniel GONZALEZ. Marko JEVTOVIC overcame Angel NARANJO while AFANDOR scored against Zolt PETE. Both JEVTOVIC and Pete are without rankings due to the long absence from the international scene. “It was a close match with all players better ranked than us in the Puerto Rico team. We are only fifth in the group so we can only surprise our adversaries. It is good that we commenced our journey here with the win ” said LEVAJAC. Czechia overcame Madagascar as Lubomir JANCARIK went the full distance to beat Jonathan NATIVEL and also prevailed against Fabio RAKOTOARIMANANA. Fabio beat Tomas POLANSKY while Jiri MARTINKO defeated Antoine RAZAFINARIVO. Hungary beat Cuba in straight matches with Adam SZUDI Csaba ANDRAS and Tamas LAKATOS each securing one victory. European champions Sweden needed only three matches to prevail against Slovakia. Anton KALLBERG overcame Lubomir PISTEJ Truls MOREGARDH beat Wang YANG and Mattias FALCK succeeded against Jakub ZELINKA. Anton KALLBERG : “It was a very tough game I think it was close from the start and the first match is always pretty difficult for both sides. I’m very happy with my performance; I managed to win. The most challenging part was finding the rhythm the right tactics in the match and applying the right amount of pressure.” Mattias FALCK: “We are seeded number one in the group so our goal is to win the group stage and I am confident that we will. We will prepare the same way. We know the opponent; there is nothing new here. We will prepare seriously and take each match as it comes.” Portugal also needed three matches to overcome Romania. Marcos FREITAS was stretched to the full distance against Eduardo IONESCU before Joao GERALDO and Tiago APOLONIA recorded victories against Ovidiu IONESCU and Iulian CHIRITA.

Interesting facts & figures: This is the first time the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals (WTTC) is taking place in KoreaRepublic Over 2000 participants including players and staff have gathered in Busan for the prestigious event 2024 commemorates a century of table tennis in Korea marking a significant milestone in the sport’s history First ever international table tennis event to attain the prestigious ISO 20121 certification; also the first non-multisport World Championships hosted in Korea Republic to receive the certification Joao MONTEIRO (POR) is the only player to have played in every WTTC since 2000. • In April 1954 twins Diane and Rosalind ROWE’S (ENG) victory in the women’s doubles on their 21st birthdays remain unmatched in sporting history triumphing over Kathy BEST and Ann HAYDON in the only all-English final at a WTTC to date To this date Žarko DOLINAR (YUG) who partnered Vilim HARANGOZO (YUG) to men’s doubles success in 1954 remains the only World Champion with a Ph.D. degree