(by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor)
Fine start for German stars at T2APAC Grand Finals
Singapore’s Feng Tianwei and Romania’s Bernadette Szocs, alongside Germany’s Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov emerged successful as the T2 Asia-Pacific League (T2APAC) Grand Finals commenced in Johor, Malaysia on Thursday 7th December.

They were the winners in the Men’s Singles and Women’s Singles Championship Play-Off contests, for the tournament which commenced in early June and has involved six sessions of play since that date; in each session four teams – Team JJ, Team Maze, Team Persson, Team Rossi – competed against each other in an event where the total prize fund is a staggering US$1.75 million.

At the conclusion of the six sessions of play, Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Timo Boll alongside Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan and Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus emerged as the leading men; however, ill health forced Vladimir Samsonov to withdraw from proceedings, he was replaced by the next in line Japan’s Jun Mizutani.

In the play-off contests Dimitrij Ovtchatov beat Jun Mizutani (3-1); Timo Boll overcame Chuang Chih-Yuan (3-2).

Meanwhile for the women, the leading names were Feng Tianwei and Bernadette Szocs alongside China’s Liu Fei and Shi Xunyao. In the play-off contests Feng Tianwei beat Shi Xunyao (3-1), Bernadette Szocs accounted for Liu Fei (3-2).

Attention now turns to the team competition where Team Maze faces Team Persson.

On Friday 8th December Timo Boll plays Jun Mizutani, Yang Haeun confronts Suthasini Sawettabut, whilst Chen Chien-An opposes Joo Saehyuk; on Sunday 10th December Feng Tianwei meets Shi Xunyao, Alexander Shibaev faces Mattias Karlsson, Hina Hayata clashes with Bernadette Szocs.

Matches last 24 minutes, the first player to 11 points wins the game, if a game ends on or after 22 minutes, a kill zone game will be played, the first to five points.

T2 Asia-Pacific League: Full Details