Posts in category: TTI News

Over the past two days, a small Irish contingent of 3 Men and 1 Woman has been battling away at the ITTF World Championships in Paris. The Irish players involved at this top class event are John  Murphy, Paul McCreery, Gavin Maguire and Sarah Timlin.

First in to action in the Mixed Doubles Preliminaries were Murphy and Timlin, who were drawn against the Sri Lanka pairing of JAYASINGHA Nirmala and G. VITHANAGE Nuwani. This was a tough start for the Irish and they were eliminated in straight sets (-7, -7, -6).

In the Men’s Singles, Gavin Maguire started his competition in top form, displaying his quality with a fine win over KHUDAIBERDIEV Zhasur of Kyrgyzstan by 4-1. This set up a group decider with MIKUTIS of Lithuania. The Lithuanian is Ranked 355 in the World and showed his class with a fine performance, beating Maguire 4:1 to end his involvement in the Individual competition.

John Murphy was next into action and had the additional pressure of both of his matches being streamed all over the world via the ITTF website. He stormed into an early lead against Jamaica’s Webb, only to be pulled back in what was a nail-biting encounter that could have gone either way. Murphy however is no stranger to seven-set deciders and showed all of his experience to dominate the last set and claim a fine 4:3 win. This set up another group decider for the Irish contingent and all of Murphy’s Irish fans were glued to the live stream as he faced Canada’s THERIAULT who is ranked 379 in the World. It was not to be on this occasion for the battling Murphy and he lost out 4:1 and was eliminated from the event.

Paul McCreery, Ireland’s National Champion was the last remaining Irish player in to action on Day 1 and he was faced with a difficult draw with two ranked opponents in his way.  He also faced Canadian opposition in  PINTEA and they had a massive battle to claim the win, McCreery pushing hard all the way only to lose out in the 7th set. He later faced BEN ARI of Israel which was again a step too far for McCreery, losing out 4:1. After a phenomenal domestic season on both the Irish and UK Grand Prix circuit, McCreery will perhaps be disappointed with not claiming a victory here, but will have taken significant experience from this event.

In the Women’s event, making her bow at the Worlds was Sarah Timlin who enjoyed an excellent season at domestic level. Timlin first faced BOUCLARAS of Algeria – she battled hard but lost out again in a final set 4:3 match. Next us was yet another Canadian LUO – Canada seeming determined to end all Irish hopes in this tournament having also eliminated Murphy and McCreery. Timlin fought hard but LUO is a top 400 player and again was just too strong, claiming a 4:0 win.

Ireland’s last remaining hope in the event was the Doubles team of Maguire and McCreery. They were into action on the morning of Day 2 of the event, claiming a straight sets victory over the unranked Lebanese pairing to progress to the 2nd Round of the Preliminary competition. In the Round of 64, they faced a strong Bahrain pairing who just had too much for the Irish duo – a 3:0 loss bringing Ireland’s involvement in the competition to an end.

The World Table Tennis Family descends to Paris for the 2013 World Table Tennis Championships which take place between the 13^th and 20^th of May.

At the Press Conference to mark the start of the Championships President of the French Table Tennis Federation Christian Paliérne when welcoming people to Pairs said “This tournament is a great competition and we have great volunteers, we look forward to this event being a success”.  Defending Men’s Singles World Champion Zhang Jike from China said “The Important thing is to win the match, not the ranking”

The entry stands at quite an astonishing 463 Men and 360 Women and the draw took place on Saturday the 11th of May. The Titles up for grabs are the Mens and Ladies Singles, Mixed Doubles and Mens and Ladies Doubles.

Team Ireland is Paul McCreery, Gavin Maguire, John Murphy and Sarah Timlin.  All the players are playing in the Singles events and McCreery and Maguire team up for Mens Doubles and Murphy and Timlin team up for Mixed Doubles Event.

All Team Ireland are involved in Qualification rounds over the next two days.

Gavin Maguire is ranked at 832 and was draw into Group 73 and faces Tomas MIKUTUS from Lithuania (WR 355) and Zhasur KHUDAIBERDIEV from Kyrgyzstan (No WR).

John Murphy is ranked at 803 and was drawn into Group 78, he will play Pierre-Luc THERIAULT from Canada (WR 379) and Nigel WEBB from Jamaica (No WR).

Paul McCreery is ranked at 551. He plays in Group 87 and faces Omri BEN ARI from Israel (WR 411) and James PINTEA from Canada (WR 725).

Sarah Timlin also has no World Ranking and was drawn into Group 42 her opponents are Anqi LUO from Canada (WR 392) and Fatiha BOUCLARAS from Algeria (WR 906).

In the Mens Doubles Maguire and McCreery will play a pairing from Lebanon; Mohamad EL HABECH and Malek EL TAWIL, neither player has a current World Ranking.

In the Mixed Doubles, Murphy and Timlin will play Nirmala JAYASINGHA and Nuwani G. VITHANAGE from Sri Lanka again neither player has a World Ranking.

For more details check out the ITTF Website.

Gavin, Ashley & Mark at the Butterfly Baltic Cup in Estonia!

German based Gavin Maguire and Ashley Robinson with Mark O’Flynn travelled recently to take part in the Butterfly Baltic Cup in Estonia. All three recorded good results.

Gavin partnered Matias Contreras from Chile in the team event in which they progressed to the quarter final after a 3/1 victory over Belarus 4, only to lose to No. 1 seeds, Estonia 3/1. Matias beat the opposing team’s No. 2 and Gavin lost at deuce in all 4 sets to the well know Alexander Smirnov, 3/1. In the doubles, after leading 10/8 in the final set, they lost what was a vital match for them to win. Gavin and Matias finished in 5^th place in the team event.

Ashley and Mark lost narrowly 3/1 to Lithuania 3 in their last 32 match. Ashley won the single match while Mark played very well to lose deuce in the 5^th set to the runner up in the singles event. In a playoff match they beat the Swedish/ Belarussian team which included Owe Karlsson who is a regular on the English Grand Prix scene. Ashley had good wins against both players and they had a comprehensive win in the doubles.

In the singles event, Gavin lost deuce in the 5^th to Estonian defender, A. Lushin who had been a quarter finalist in last year’s European Youths Championships. He went through from the group in second place. As for Ashley and Mark, they both won their way through their first groups to then lose to stronger opponents.

Well done to all three for travelling to the competition in Estonia and for recording good performances while there.