On February 26, Beijing time, the 2022 Table Tennis European Championship Round of 16 is about to kick off in Switzerland, although the German star Ochalov retired due to injury, we can still see 4 world champion-level national table tennis opponents selected, they are - Pol (Germany), Falke (Sweden), Karlsson (Sweden), Ni Xialian (Luxembourg).
It is worth mentioning that Ni Xialian will turn 59 this year, but she can still compete in the first line of the field, which is really breathtaking! The 40-year-old German Pol, who has won the title 7 times like Grand Slam Waldner, is now expected to break the record again. Please see below for details of the entry list.
Table tennis European Cup is a prestigious event, previously 12 men and women each played, so it was also called "European Round of 12", later changed to 16 people, so the name also became "Round of 16". Since only two events are set up for men's and women's singles, they can be played in two days, from February 26 to 27.
The athletes who have won the most titles in the history of the European Championship are the two old opponents of national table tennis that we just mentioned, Waldner and Pol, both of which have been 7 times. However, Lao Wa has long retired, and Pol was able to win the European Championship men's singles title last year, so he is very hopeful to break the record of himself and his predecessors, which is really exciting!
Relatively speaking, Sweden's Falk and Karlsson are also world champions, but the two are doubles world table tennis gold medalists, singles in recent years the state is not ideal, so everyone is not particularly optimistic about their summit, but the German star Francesca who replaced Ocharov is relatively more favored, and he is also last year's champion, and this year will definitely strive to defend the title.
In addition, Britain's Pitcheford (won Marlon, Xu Xin), France's Simon (won Xu Xin), Slovenia's Dako (won Zhang Benzhihe) also have relatively strong strength, Portugal's Freitas has also won the European Championship, and other players are inferior.
Relatively speaking, the level of European female table tennis players is obviously worse, and the status in the world table tennis is not high, so the fierce competition is not as fierce as that of male table tennis, mainly focusing on the competition between 4 Chinese celebrities (Ni Xialian, Han Ying, Fu Yu, Shao Jieni) and European local athletes.
Although there are no national table tennis players to join, but Europe is also the birthplace of table tennis after all, the average is also OK (especially men's table tennis), so we can still enjoy a large number of chinese players with different styles of athletes, feel different wonderful: it is worth looking forward to!