TTT30 Spring 2023

Europe Top 16 Cup
25 th -26 th February: Montreux, Switzerland
Photos courtesy of the ETTU
The city of Montreux, Switzerland again hosted the Europe Top 16 Cup on 25 th and 26 th February 2023. As in
recent years the tournament is now a straight knockout, no longer any groups or all play all. Most of the top
players in Europe were competing and so it was no easy task to become champion. The two winners went
home with a nice cheque for 10,000 euros and even those losing in the first round received 2,000 euros each.
Liam Pitchford, seeded sixth, was the only English participant and in his first match he was drawn against
Tomislav Pucar of Croatia, seeded 12th. Pitchford started well winning the first two 11-7 but lost the third by
the same score, a tight fourth 13-11 went Pitchford’s way and then Pucar took the fifth 12-10. Pitchford then
got the win 11-3 in the sixth.
Pitchford’s next opponent was Sweden’s Truls Moregardh, world ranked five and top seed. He had beaten
Slovakian, Wang Yang, in a game of excellent quality which drew applause from the spectators for the many
superb rallies. It showed table tennis at its best as attacker faced a supreme defender. Pitchford versus
Moregardh was also a match to remember as the Swede got off to a good start winning the first 11-8, Pitchford
then evened the score 11-4. Moregardh then had two very comfortable wins 11-3, 11-3 giving him an 3-1 lead.
It looked all over for Pitchford but then in a complete turnaround Pitchford won the last three games 11-7, 11-
4, 11-9 for the match.
Pitchford was through to the semi-finals and faced Qiu Dang of Germany, the European Champion. It was
another thrilling seven game match. This time Pitchford won the first 11-6, then Qiu went ahead when he won
the next two 11-4, 11-5 before Pitchford levelled winning the fourth game 11-5. It was the same score but for
Qiu in the fifth before Pitchford again drew level 12-10. The final game went Qiu’s way 11-8 to put him through
to the final where he faced the reigning champion Darko Jorgic from Slovakia and it was a second win for Jorgic
8, 9, 11, -7, 5, 7. Dimitrij Ovtcharov was the other semi-finalist.
Pitchford was the first English player to stand on the podium since 1987. In that year Desmond Douglas won
what was then the European Top 12 when it was all play all – 11 matches.
The medallists
Qiu Dang, Darko Jorgic, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Liam Pitchford Sofia Polcanova, Han Ying, Nina Mittelham, Jieni Shao
The Women’s final was between defending champion, German, Han Ying and Sofia Polcanova of Austria, it
was the German player who won 5, -10, 3, 9, 5 to retain her title and make her the oldest player at 39 years
and ten months to win either the men’s or the women’s event. Germany’s Nina Mittelham and Portugal’s Jieni
Shao were the two semi-finalists.
TTT: Issue 30: Spring 2023
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