Overview of Qualification days
Liberec – The groups of European Veterans Championships in table tennis in Liberec are past. Singles and doubles will from Thursday offer dramas in K.O. Championship rounds. Today is day off for the participants. Some of them practise in the practise hall, another still slep after long night, but most of them for sure spend the sunny day with sightseeing. Betty Bird of England (W75) likes the Prague Castle so much that she left her tourist group away and spent wonderful time with the Prague Castle staff but organizers pick her up and took back to Liberec. Nevertheless, the day off is the ideal for summary of interesting results.
The top seeded are in the spotlight of majority of players and spectators. Superstars Peter Franz and Steffen “Speedy“ Fetzner entertained audience from the first ball. Great show demonstrated especially in double against the domestic Liberec’s double Martenek, Obešlo. The game full of spectacular rallies and gentleman gestures and no wonder that laughing hall applauded even long time after the match. This was for sure one of the tops of qualification days.
Defending champion from Porec 2009 Ding Yi from Austria goes through the tournament as easily as the largest rival Miroslav Cecava of Czech Republic. Both of them haven’t lost a set yet. Valentina Popova, 9-times European champion is also performing great table tennis. We can look forward to her more difficult matches on Thursday.
Football’s legend Antonín Panenka, today’s pillar of Slavoj Čerčany, proved he is familiar even with the smallest ball. Unfortunately he did not win any of his three tight matches. His matches attracted lot of fans. It is obvious as especially men players well remember his fabulous Belgrade’s penalty kick, nowadays known as – „panenka penalty“. Thursday will bring both the champion rounds as well as consolations of single matches while doubles will be played on Friday.
Lubos Protiva, press agent EVC 2011
