Posts in category: TTI News

World number ones ZHU Yuling (CHN) & FAN Zhendong (CHN) will head the seeding at the Women’s & Men’s World Cup respectively, and will both be fighting for their second title, alongside other top players who have qualified through their Continental Cups earlier this year. 
 
Men’s Defending Champion Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) & 2018 ITTF-European Cup Champion Timo BOLL (GER), who ended China’s chance for an eighth consecutive title last year in Liege, will be leading the European charge in Paris, while Romania’s Bernadette SZOCS & Elizabeta SAMARA lead the European women’s fight for the title in Chengdu.
 
Reigning women’s World & Olympic Champion DING Ning will also be making her appearance to compete for her third Women’s World Cup title, whereas her male counterpart, MA Long (CHN) has withdrawn from the Men’s World Cup & is replaced by his compatriot LIN Gaoyuan who will be making his second World Cup appearance.
 
The Japanese line-up of 2016 Women’s World Cup Champion Miu HIRANO & Kasumi ISHIKAWA, as well as 15-year-old Tomokazu HARIMOTO & Koki NIWA will also all be eyeing for the titles at the World Cups.
 
With their strong performance in 2018, Korea DPR’s KIM Song I & Frenchman Emmanual LEBESSON were awarded the wildcard to compete in the Women’s & Men’s World Cup respectively.
 
The ITTF Men’s & Women’s World Cups will start off with players seeded 9 – 20 playing round robin in the group stage to fight for their chance to join the top 8 players in the second stage, where a knockout system will be played to determine the winner.

The ITTF World Cups are the second most prestigious events on the international table tennis calendar, where only 17 of the top table tennis players who have qualified through their respective Continental Cups, together with the current World Champions, one host player and a wildcard, can compete for the prestigious title that counts towards the Grand Slam Title (Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup).
 
The ITTF Men’s World Cup will be in its 39th edition in 2018 since its inauguration in 1980 in Hong Kong, whereas the Women’s World Cup will be in its 22nd year since it first started in 1996 in Hong Kong as well.

Fans around the world will be able to watch the events live on Eurosport, and other top networks across the world reaching over 100 countries and live on tv.ITTF.com.
 
Quick Links:

Uncle Pop 2018 ITTF Women’s World Cup
Confirmed list of Women’s Players
Media Accreditation for Uncle Pop 2018 ITTF Women’s World Cup
Liebherr 2018 ITTF Men’s World Cup
Confirmed list of Men’s Players

Over the past week, Sophie Earley from Ormeau Table Tennis club has been representing Ireland at the World Hopes in Alicante, Spain. Sophie qualified for this event by attending the European Hopes challenge in Luxembourg in April. Sophie impressed the ITTF coaches very much and recorded the highest European evaluation which qualified her for the world hopes in Alicante.

The world hopes program holds significant importance to any high-performance player under the ages of 12 as a small number of players will qualify to compete for the world hopes team in the world cadet challenge in Japan in October. Over the week Sophie and coach Gervis Knox spent many hours in the training hall fine-tuning and working on her game putting in just under 6 hours each day on the table. Feedback from the ITTF coaches Japan’s Takashi Watanabe and Slovenia’s Joze Urh was very positive and complimentary leaving them impressed with her improvements in the past year.

Overall all the world hopes comprises of 16 of the best boys and girls from around the world who have qualified through the European, Oceania, Asian, North American or South American hopes week. After 6 days of training, it was time to put the training into a competitive environment and the World Hopes Challenge started on the Sunday with Sophie going in as number two seed after a great performance on Thursday’s test tournament.

Group Stage

Sophie at number two seed was put into a group of four players. The first match of the day was against Melendez from Peurto Rico with Sophie starting a little slow and hesitant she manages to come through this match 3-1. Next up in the second match was against Arellano from Ecuador where she raised her level from the previous game and won convincingly 3-0 showing good form and attitude. The final match of the group to keep her number two seeding was against a tricky opponent Tayapitak from Thailand. This match was always going to be tough as the girl from Thailand plays very strong both sides and also hold herself very close to the table and hence difficult to make winners. Sophie showing her class was able to adjust her game and start to change the pace and make many winners using wide angles. Sophie after a long game stepped it up and won finishing with a strong fifth set.

Last 16

Next up for Sophie was the knockout stages where she was up against it drawing a strong girl Baiasu from Romania. Romanian have always been a European powerhouse in Table tennis producing many current champions. This did not phase Sophie and went into the match confident getting better each round she played. After two very close rounds that finished in deuce points, Sophie took the lead 2-0. In the third set, the flow was with her and she was able to close out the match 3-0.

Quarter Final

After a good match with the Romanian girl, Sophie was the last European girl standing in the main event. Next up for her was Cux Tiriquiz from Guatemala who she played on the Thursday test event. Gervis was very happy how Sophie’s game was improving round by round and in the quarters she put in a clinical display of table tennis winning comfortably 3-0

Semi-Final

Semifinal of the event seen Sophie face Egypt’s Hana Goda who was showing impressive form through the event by beating one of the favourites Saini Suhaa from India 3-0 in the quarterfinals! Sophie came out in the semi-final strong winning the first game 11-4 but Hana hit back in the second winning 11-6. Sophie again before the third set composed herself and got herself a good start in the third and seeing her playing some fabulous winning shots took the set 11-5. Again as we have seen many times from Hana in the tournament she is a massive fighter and came back strong winning the fourth set 11-7. Now with both girls showing good form the fifth set was set for a nailbiting finish where Sophie came out like a warrior and lead all the way through the fifth to lead 9-6. After some great play from Hana, she eventually closed the game to 9-8 with Gervis now calling a timeout on Sophie’s service. Sophie composed went back on the table winning the next ball leaving the score 10-8 and two match points. Somehow in this next point, Hana kept herself in a massive rally and took the point giving her massive confidence to level the game 10-10 in the fifth set! With tension and nerves high Sophie again pulled it together and took the next point to leave it 11-10 but again Hana got back in the game levelling the set 11-11. Now with momentum, a little with Hana but Sophie playing unbelievable table tennis with massive rallies Hana showed some class and held the next two points giving her the match 13-11 in an epic fifth set! Sophie could not have thrown much more into this game and showed her class throughout! 

Bronze Medal Match 

The final game of the day for Sophie was difficult as it was not easy for her taking this loss but again showed her character by bouncing back quickly and came out in the very first point pumped (With a massive Cho) against the American Emily Tan. First set was very nip and tuck with Sophie winning 12-10, Emily fired back winning the second 11-9 but Sophie started to fight as a Medal at the World Hope means the world to her and she won the next two sets 11-8 and 12-10!

Finishing the tournament on a high by winning her last match and now giving herself a massive chance to qualify for the World Cadet Challenge in Japan in October. Coach Gervis said “After seeing Sophie putting in many top class European performances this semi-final was one of the best in terms of level and the high quality of points played! Think she has given herself a massive chance to qualify for Japan and we now just have to wait for the team selections!” 

From all of Table Tennis Ireland, we are very proud of Sophie’s achievements and we wish her all the best in the World Hopes Selections which should be announced in the next couple of days! 

At the 61st european Youth championships, held in Cluj, Romania, Ireland had teams playing in the cadet boys and girls team events. The boys team of Thomas Joyce,Art McLaughlin, Dillon Byrne and James Skelton with national coach John Murphy were competing in the top tier of 16 so they knew it was going to be tough.

Grouped with European champions Russia, Czech Rep.and Italy the boys fought tigerishly in every match and though they lost 3/0 in  each game the performance was promising.Next up weas Romania and with a large home crowd they beat us 3/0.Signs were good however that a victory wasnt too far away.Playing in a group with England and Turkey ,ireland faced England first.Art McLaughlin got Ireland off to a flying start beating Hussain.Liu levelled for England ,defeating Thomas Joyce.The doubles went Ireland’s way with a stirring performance from Art and Dillon Byrne.England however won the two remaining singles narrowly with Hussain beating Thomas and Liu defeating Art.

Turkey beat England 3/1 so the stakes were high in the Ireland v Turkey match.Turkey raced into a 2/0 lead but then the drama really started.Another spirited doubles win from Art and Thomas  stopped the Turkish momentum. Art then won a very tough battle to level the match at 2/2.In a nerve wrecking final game Thomas showed nerves of steel to claim victory 3/2 and give Ireland its first victory.

Another competent performance against Switzerland 3/2 with Art and Thomas beating Falconnier and Art/Dillon winning the doubles saw the team playing Israel for positions 21/22.

A chance for James Skelton and Dillon to play their first singles,they played well but were beaten.Art/Dillon lost the doubles so a 22nd place for the team.With Thomas ,Dillon and James eligible next yeat the future looks promising.

                                     Cadet Girls Claim Four Victories

The girls team of Sophie Earley, Silke Heinen and Nicole Scott with performance director Conn Higgins had their sights set on qualifying from their group of Croatia, Luxembourg and Israel.The opening match against Luxembourg was crucial.Silke Heinen was first into battle and it was epic.Sike led 9/6 in the fifth set but three unforced errors brought the game to 9/9.Kieffer held her nerve to win 12/10 and give Luxembourg the lead,Sophie Earley levelled the match by beating Xiaojing NI.Luxembourg had a narrow win in the doubles to go 2/1 up.Sophie went to the fifth set with Kiieffer but was unable to stem the Luxembourg tide to give Luxembourg a 3/1 win.

Next up was Israel.Bouncing back from that defeat,Nicole Scott proved her mettle  when she won the opening game 3/0.Sophie put us 2/0 up  with another 3/0 win and clinched victory by taking the doubles also.

Top seeds in the group ,Croatia proved too strong for the girls though Sophie lost 11/13 in the fifth set to Longcarevic, giving Croatia a 3/0 victory.

In phase two the girls were now playing for positions 28 to 40.

Four victories came in quick succession.Sophie and Nicole played against Armenia.Both girls won their opening singles and completed the victory , capturing the doubles, to give Ireland  another 3/0 win.

Next up were neighbours Scotland,Silke got the team off to a flying start defeating Leggett 3/0.Sophie had a tougher battle against Norbury but claimed victory 3/1.Sophie and Silke won the doubles  3/0  give  Ireland its third win

Slovenia proved a tougher nut to crack.With Nicole suffering with a back injury, Sophie and Silke took up the challenge.Sophie was commanding in defeating the promising Opeka 3/0.Silke  played brilliantly to beat Zigan 3/1 and both girls were clinical in the doubles to give Ireland its fourth 3/0 victory.

The final match decided positions 29/30. Bosnia Herzegovina proved too strong for Sophie and Nicole in the opening matches and Sophie/Silke were unable to turn it around in the doubles.

Again the future looks bright with Sophie and Silke eligible next year.

15 matches in four days kept players and coaches busy.A learning experience and some great memories from Cluj ,Romania

One gold,one silver and four bronze medals were claimed by the Irish schools teams at the Worcester Arena during the senior school’s championships.

16 players representing 7 teams played in the cadet , intermediate and senior team events , boys and girls.

Highlight was the silver medal won by the senior girls (Thuy Linh Cashmam,Zofia Wawrzyniak).Having lost the opening match to England 3/2, they defeated Scotland and Guernsey to set up a semi final clash with Wales.

It was a titanic battle.After the opening two singles it was 1/1.The doubles proved to be crucial with the Irish pair winning narrowly in the fifth set.Wales levelled when Beth Richards defeated Thuy Linh.

The deciding rubber was nail biting.It went all the way to set five with Zofia holding her nerve to win 12/10.

Again the final against England was very tense.Thuy Linh put Ireland ahead and momentum seemed to have swung Ireland’s way when Zofia led 2/0 and 7/3 in the third set.Despite a time out , the combination of Irish nerves and English steel swung the match in England’s favour and England eventually  won the March 3/1.

Bronze medals were won by the intermediate girls(Mia ORahily Egan,Lucy Criaig), by the cadet girls( Pravesha Ragi,Thi Ly Cashman,Nicole Larmour) and by the cadet boys(Ciaran O Donoghue, David Taylor)

Mia Claims Intermediate Girl’s Title

A very composed Mia O Rahily Egan saw off the challenge of England’s Ianau sisters in the quarter and semi final, both five setters to set up a final meeting with England’s Katie Holt.

Brimming with confidence Mia was always in control and claimed the gold medal , winning 3/1

Zofia Wawrzyniak claimed bronze in the senior girl’s singles.

Dylan Grace won the senior boy’s consolation final while Conor Nugent was runner up in the intermediate boys’ consolation final.

Our thanks to the coaching team of John Murphy, Conn Hiiggins, Jing Yi Graham and Tara Fusco who had a very busy but fruitful weekend.