Montreux. From a German perspective, the round of 16 at the prestigious Europe Top 16 Cup in Montreux ended with light and shadow. Three out of a total of nine DTTB players who started won their ticket to the quarter-finals in the elite tournament worth 125,000 euros. In addition to Benedikt Duda in the men’s category, the women’s defending champion Ying Han and Europe’s number one Sabine Winter prevailed in purely German duels.
Duda surprisingly faces Freitas in the quarter-finals
Benedikt Duda provided one of the sporting highlights from a German perspective. The 31-year-old world number 14. defeated the Swede Anton Källberg in a high-class five-set match and is now in the top eight at the Europe Top 16 Cup. After a rollercoaster of emotions, Duda held his nerve in the crucial moments and secured the win of the fifth set with 13:11: “Anton played incredibly well today, much better than in my last clear win in the Bundesliga. He laid incredibly well today and played very good forehand flips. It’s good to have won such a close match in the first round.”
In the quarter-finals, the European Championship finalist from Linz will unexpectedly face the Portuguese veteran Marcos Freitas, who had previously eliminated the top-seeded Swede Truls Möregardh 3-1, on Saturday at 3:25 p.m. Duda wants to take advantage of the unexpected constellation: “I didn’t win a set against Möregardh recently. It’s an open match against Freitas, who was very strong today.”
Winter confident in the duel against Shan
For the women, there were two domestic German round of 16 duels on the program. In a remarkable duel between last year’s third-placed teams, Dachau’s Sabine Winter didn’t let Berlin’s Xiaona Shan win a set. Europe’s number one, who recently had to limit her training program due to muscular problems, said: “The first tournament match is always very difficult, especially against a teammate. Nana is a very strong player, and it was very important that I was able to win the second set after 4:8. Otherwise it would have been even harder work. I didn’t feel any of my muscular problems of the last few weeks in the match today, I was pain-free.”
Shan praised her opponent’s performance: “I still lost the second set after taking a big lead, but I have to say that Sabine is now playing really well. She has a lot of spin variations, plus the balls from the anti – she does that very well. I usually like playing against material, but Sabine is something different – she has a much better forehand, which she uses immediately when her opponent is weak.”
Exciting duel of generations between Han and Kaufmann
The duel between generations between three-time Europe Top 16 winner Ying Han and 19-year-old Annett Kaufmann was much more dramatic. After a 2-0 lead, Han had to accept the equalizer against the 2024 U19 World Champion, who was improving as the game progressed, but again clearly had the upper hand in the deciding set. “Annett has improved a lot after a not so good start. I just tried not to think about winning or losing and to fight point for point,” said the defending champion afterwards.
Kaufmann, who had already shown strong performances in the qualification the day before, drew a positive conclusion despite the initial disappointment of the five-set defeat: “If I look at how clearly I lost against Ying three months ago and how close it was now, then I can be proud of my development. And I’m happy that I never gave up.”
German semi-final possible
In the quarterfinals, Winter will face Spain’s Maria Xiao at 12:20 p.m., while Ying Han will face Portugal’s Fu Yu at 2:45 p.m. If the two Germans prevail against the southern Europeans, there would be a German semi-final on Sunday.
Early exit for four other starters
For four other DTTB aces, the tournament ended in the round of 16.
Physically ailing, world number eleven Dang Qiu had to admit defeat to Croatian Tomislav Pucar in five sets. After three match points fended off, the 2022 European champions in Munich lost 10:12 in the deciding set. A lumbago visibly limited the Düsseldorfer’s ability to move: “The game was bitter. At 2:2, 10:10 and with my own serve, I wasn’t consistent enough, and I was also a bit lacking in luck. My lumbago contributed to the fact that I couldn’t move so well from the middle, but that shouldn’t be an excuse and shouldn’t detract from Pucar’s performance. I still had my chance to win and didn’t take it.”
Patrick Franziska, who came third last year, also missed out on the quarter-finals. In a high-class match against the Frenchman Simon Gauzy, only nuances decided the 1:3 in the end. The Saarbrücken player was correspondingly disappointed: “After winning the first round, I had good chances: a 6:3 lead in the second set, where I felt like I had it somehow under control, and I still had a set point after 8:10 in the third set. It was a very even game. In the end, a few wrong decisions made the difference.”
The most recently in-form, five-time Europe Top 16 winner Dimitrij Ovtcharov never found his game against the brilliant Dane Anders Lind and lost in three sets. “I didn’t get into my rhythm against him today. I have to accept that, there are still many tournaments to come,” said the former world number one.
In the women’s category, the 2021 winner, Nina Mittelham, was eliminated in four sets against the French Jia Nan Yuan, who won the 2024 tournament. National coach Tamara Boros said after her protégé’s departure:
“Nina simply didn’t play the first two sets well enough today. She only played better after the timeout in the third set. We have to analyze the match again in peace after the tournament.”
With the exception of Möregardh, the top seeds didn’t show any weakness
At the prestigious tournament, the favorites showed no weakness in the round of 16, with the exception of Swede Möregardh. The French Alexis and Felix Lebrun are still in the title race, as is the three-time winner Darko Jorgic (Slovenia). In the women’s category, in addition to the Germans Winter and Han, who were seeded first and fourth, European Games winner Bernadette Szöcs (Romania) and European champion Sofia Polcanova (Austria) also reached the quarterfinals. France is represented in the top eight for women and men with a total of five athletes.
The results in the round of 16
Herren
Truls Möregardh SWE – Marcos Freitas BY 16:10 Uhr
Benedikt Duda GER – Anton Källberg SWE 3:2 (6,-6,-5,12,13)
Dang Qiu GER – Tomislav Pucar CRO 2:3 (-6,8,7,-6,10)
Darko Jorgic SLO – Jonathan Groth DEN 3:1 (-14,3,8,8)
Félix Lebrun FRA – Alvaro Robles ESP 3:0 (4,8,7)
Patrick Franziska GER – Simon Gauzy FROM 1:3 (10,-9,-11,-8)
Dimitrij Ovtcharov GER – Anders Lind DEN 0:3 (-7,-8,-9)
Alexis Lebrun FRA – Eduard Ionescu ROU 3:0 (4,5,7)
Damen
Sabine Winter GER – Xiaona Shan GER 3:0 (8,8,8)
Elizabeta Samara ROU – Maria Xiao ESP 2:3 (8,-7,-22,9,-6)
Prithika Pavade FRA – Fu Yu POR 0:3 (-8,-5,-12)
Ying Han GER – Annett Kaufmann GER 3:2 (9,6,-9,-10,6)
Bernadette Szöcs ROU – Natalia Bajor POL 3:0 (3,8,8)
Linda Bergström SWE – Charlotte Lutz FRA 0:3 (-0,-3,-4)
Nina Mittelham GER – Jia Nan Yuan FROM 1:3 (-6,-6,5,-11)
Sofia Polcanova AUT – Jieni Shao POR 3:0 (5,7,8)
Links
Saturday, February 7th. Quarterfinals
Herren
Benedikt Duda GER – Marcos Freitas BY 15:25 Uhr
Darko Jorgic SLO – Tomislav Pucar CRO 11:40 a.m
Felix Lebrun FROM – Anders Lind THE 1 p.m
Alexis Lebrun FROM – Simon Gauzy FROM 16:45 Uhr
Damen
Sabine Winter GER – Maria Xiao ESP 12:20 p.m
Ying Han GIVES – Fu Yu POR 2:45 p.m
Bernadette Szöcs ROU – Charlotte Lutz FRA 4:05 p.m
Sofia Polcanova AUT – Jia Nan Yuan FRA 11am
Sunday February 8th, semi-finals and finals
10:00 a.m.: Semifinal 1 Women
10:40 a.m.: Semifinal 2 women
11:20 a.m.: Semifinal 1 men
12:00 p.m.: Semi-final 2 men
2:00 p.m.: Women’s final
3:00 p.m.: Men’s final
The men’s peloton
Truls Möregardh SWE
Alexis Lebrun FROM
Félix Lebrun FROM
Darko Jorgic SLO
Benedikt Duda GER
Patrick Franziska GER
Dang Qiu GER
Dimitrij Ovtcharov GER
Anton Källberg SWE
Anders Lind THE ONE
Simon Gauzy FROM
Jonathan Growth DEN
Marcos Freitas BY
Eduard Ionescu ROU
Tomislav Pucar CRO (Qualifier)
Alvaro Robles ESP (Qualifikant)
The women’s peloton
Sabine Winter GER
Sofia Polcanova AUT
Bernadette Szöcs ROU
Ying Han GIVES
Jia Nan Yuan FROM
Elizabeta Samara ROU
Prithika Pavade FRA
Jieni Shao POR
Nina Mittelham GER
Linda Bergström SWE
Fu Yu POR
Maria Xiao ESP
Natalia Bajor POL
Xiaona Shan GER
Annett Kaufmann GER (qualifier)
Charlotte Lutz FRA (qualifier)
The DTTB squad at the Europe Top 16 Cup
Herren
Dang Qiu (Borussia Düsseldorf), Benedikt Duda (TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt), Patrick Franziska (1. FC Saarbrücken-TT), Dimitrij Ovtcharov (TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell)
Damen
Sabine Winter (TSV Dachau), Ying Han (KTS Tarnobrzeg, Poland), Nina Mittelham (ttc berlin eastside), Xiaona Shan (ttc berlin eastside), Annett Kaufmann (SV DJK Kolbermoor)
Trainer
Tamaro Boros (women’s national coach), Jörg Roßkopf (men’s national coach), Zoltan Batorfi (assistant women’s national coach)
Physiotherapists
Birgit Schmidt, Annette Zischka
referee
Christoph Geiger