(by Steve Hopkins, photo ETTU)
The final four teams in the 2023 Stupa European Table Tennis Championships were Germany, Portugal, Sweden, and France. All four of these teams will compete in the Olympics next year in Paris. Germany entered the event as the top seed, but they did not send their top three players by ranking to compete – choosing to compete with Timo Boll, Benedikt Duda, and Kay Stumper (and not with Patrick Franziska, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, or Dang Qiu). France did have their two brothers, Felix and Alexis Lebrun, but there were missing Simon Gauzy (who just had a baby). With both France and Germany missing key players, the Swedish team became the favorite – and that was the result, a dominant performance by the Swedes at an event played before a Swedish crowd in Malmo.
On Saturday, Germany defeated Portugal 3-1. Duda, Stumper, and Boll each logged one win, while Boll lost to Tiago Apolonia in the second match to account for the one Portuguese victory. Sweden had a similar result against France – with their top player Truls Moregard falling to Felix Liebrun, but then Falck, Karlsson and Moregard each loogged one win securing the 3-1 victory before Felix Lebrun was able to play again. Two of Sweden’s win’s (both over Alexis Lebrun) were tight 5-set victories, and Kristian Karlsson eaxily defeated Jules Rolland – so if these two teams face off in Paris next year with a stronger French squad (with Gauzy playing) the result may not be the same.
Moregard won both matches in the Final against Germany (over Duda and Boll). Boll topped Mattias Falck for Germany’s only win. Karlsson had a tight 3-2 win over Stumper. Again, two of Sweden’s wins were tight 3-2 wins, and if these two teams face each other in Paris next year, its likely that Germany’s squad will be bolstered with three higher ranked players (Franziska, Ovtcharov, and Qiu). Still, on this day – Sweden wins. A dominant victory in front of a home crowd – and a promising step towards medal contention at the 2024 Olympics.
The Women’s Final was Germany versus Romania – and the result is a bit of a surprise as Romania is capable of winning each of these matches. However, on this day, Germany sweeps – with Xiaona Shan winning 3-0 over Elizabeta samara, Han Ying winning 3-1 over Bernadette Szocs, and Nina Mittelham winning 3-2 over Andrea Dragoman.
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