TTSTAR - ENJOY TABLE TENNIS

07/02/2010 - The winners of the 40th LIEBHERR Europe Top-12 in Dusseldorf are German Timo BOLL and Netherland’s LI Jiao. In front of 3.200 spectators in Burg-Wächter Castello German succeeded for a fifth time, whilst LI won her third title.

In fourth attempt to beat German Timo BOLL in the final of the Europe Top-12, Vladimir SAMSONOV failed once again. German kept his record straight and with fifth title won in Dusseldorf at the LIEBHERR Europe Top-12 he is one step closer to the legendary Swede Jan-Ove WALDNER who won the big cup seven times.

“In fifth game I fully recovered and pushed Vladi down. I tried my best to prevent him of coming back and gain self confidence,” explained Timo who succeeded in six games.
We witnessed the two completely different edition of the match, with SAMSONOV fully in control at the start and fantastic finish of BOLL in closing stages. Vladi had 2:1 in games and 8:2 in forth game.

In the re-run of the 2008 final from Frankfurt, LI Jiao of Netherlands won the title again. Like two years before for the Poland’s representative LI Qian there was the consolation in silver. In full distance match for the big cup LI Qian was two match-balls close to the second title, but experienced LI Jiao did not give up. She saved the match points and won the match.

“I am so happy that I managed to turn over the match. I did not expect I could win here. I am back in game from an injury and I was hope that I can pass the Group stage. Title was so out of reach for me. That is why this win is most important for me. In two previous occasions I was in form and expected the victory, this time I surprised myself,” said the winner LI Jiao.

ETTU President Stefano BOSI expressed the words of gratitude to DTTB for good organization of the event. “As usual we had very well organization of the event in Germany and we are used to it every time we cooperate with the DTTB,” said President BOSI.

DTTB President Thomas WEIKERT informed that the Burg-Wächter Castello hall in Dusseldorf was almost sold out during the two days event. “On the first day we had 2.700 sold tickets and on final day we had 3.200", said President WEIKERT.

Next edition of Europe Top-12 will be held in Belgium’s Liege in 2011 on February 5th and 6th .
(by Milica NIKOLIC, EWT)