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andro Newsletter February 2008

Table tennis players, andro customers, fans of the fastest sport on earth!

2008 - a year full of exciting events for the table tennis community. Just recently the European TT elite has elected the new European table tennis king and queen at the European TOP12 in Frankfurt, yet again the athletes are starting off for the next long-distance trip. Thus shortly the World Team Table Tennis Championships will be taking place in Guangzhou/ China. Due to the Olympic Games this August the WTTC are starting early this year.
Of course in this edition of the andro Newsletter a review look onto the past top events is been made as well as an outlook to the WTTC, the Olympic Games and the most recent development regarding the implementation of the speed-glue ban.

We hope the new issue of the andro Newsletter will be an interesting reading for you and we wish you a lot of fun.

Your andro team

Europe Top 12: andro-Stars im Blickpunkt/ Dritte Plätze für Dauerbrenner Jean-Mi und Aufsteigerin Dudu

Jean-Michel Saive, Wu Jiaduo and Elke Wosik as andro players took part at the European Top12 2008, Frankfurt, and two of them reached the semi-final.
Once more, the 9.000 spectators became enthusiastic by the athletic game and the will to win of Jean-Michel Saive at the Frankfurter Ballsporthalle.  Because of his tactical cleverness and his tireless fight he stood up to the smart playing Spaniard He Zhiwen in the groups, so that his following defeat against Dimitrij Ovtcharov resulted into a second group place and the quarterfinal.
At this stage, the Belgian completely controlled Zoran Primorac from Croatia. Thereby the spectators were definitely supporting the charismatic fighter Jean-Mi, being finally stopped in semi-final by later champion Werner Schlager. 
He commented his third place just with three words and a whimsical grin: “Not bad, or?” Furthermore the andro-star established a record, which could be held for eternity: 19 times in a row, Jean-Michel Saive participated at the European Top12 tournament, much more often than any other player in the history of this traditional European ranking tournament. “At my first participation 1990 in Hannover, we had to play the first time in groups”, Jean-Mi remembered. “I never played the old system “dog eat dog””. If this system would still exist, Wu Jiaduo would have probably reached a better result than just the third place. Germany’s No.1 achieved a remarkably good performance and won against Viktoria Pavlovitch (Belarus), Daniela Dodean (Romania) and Tamara Boros (Croatia) without loosing any set.

Also in the semi-final Dudu was able to offer a great resistance against later champion Li Jiao (Netherlands) . “I definitely had a chance to win”, Dudu made up the balance. In the third set at 10:9 and in the fifth set at 8:5 leading, Wu Jiaduo missed her chances and so at the end the result was 1:4 against her.After all andro-star Wu Jiaduo has all reasons to be satisfied. In Frankfurt she was able to show her impressive progress: athletically upgraded, clearly faster footwork, more power and mentally much stronger than one year before. Dudu is the upward climber of the year, and in this shape the 30-year old German has good opportunities in the foreseeable future to win on the European stage not only medals but also titles.
The second German participant at the Top12, Elke Wosik lost a bit unlucky already in the preliminary round of the tournament.  Together with Austrian Liu Jia and Luxemburgian Ni Xia Lian the andro player probably had the most tricky group.  After a 1:4 defeat against Liu Jia. Elke should have win with 4:1 against 3 times champion Ni Xia Lian to reach the quarterfinal. She was already leading 2:1, but then the Luxemburgian could tied up to 2:2 score and then when enthusiasm was gone, at the end Elke could hardly be happy about her 4:2 victory.

 

Slovenian Open: A beat of the drum from Alexei Liventsov

The first ProTour tournament of the year 2008 was won by number one seeded player Vladimir Samsonov, but the biggest surprise at the Slovenian Open  were made by an andro player: Alexei Liventsov found his way from the preliminary group  to the main draw , were he beat Danes Finn Tugwell 4:3 and after that he won in a spectacular way against Chen Weixing to reach the last sixteen. “ Until that day I have nearly always lost against defenders on this level: twice to Gionis, twice to Shetinin and once to Joo See Hyuk. Because of that I was also surprised”, noted the 26-year old. His tactic against Chen Weixing:” I have tried to win the point directly with first two fast topspins. That worked out well. “ It sounds simple, but the way Liventsov, who plays with andro Blax OFF and C.O.R. 2 Supersponge on the forehand and C.O.R. 2  on the backhand, did it was imposing.
The defender from Austria, No.34 of the World Ranking, had directly to recognize two times, the great shape of Liventsov.  In the double competition the young Russian player succeeded together with his partner Igor Rubtsov first against  the Croatian double Primorac/Gacina and later against Austria’s double Chen Weixing/Robert Gardos by 4:1 as well. Also in the quarterfinal the underdogs  showed an excellent performance and beat the Swedish combination Gerell/Lundquist with 4:3 before they entered the semi-final. At that stage Liventsov/Rubtsov were finally stopped by their compatriots Mazunov/Smirnov – but here they lost narrow: after a 0:3 start, Liventov/Rubtsov achieved a 3:3, but they finally had to admit the cleverness of the Vice-European Champions from Courmayeur 2003. “ Pity, in the final set we had a bad start and were down 1:5, then we came back to 5:5, but that was not enough”, reported Liventsov. At the end, he was dead on his feet: ”I have never played so many matches at a Pro Tour tournament like I did in Slovenia, four singles and five doubles.”
Every endeavour has been paid off. As number 188 of the World Ranking, Alexei Liventsov went to Slovenia and until now this tournament was the most successful one of his young career. Because of his victories against Tugwell and Chen Weixing, Liventsov climbed up 46 places in the February World Ranking. A huge step forward, but doubtless deserved: the Dane was 115 places, the Austrian actually 154 places ahead Liventsov in the World Ranking.

 

Olympia 2008- Interview J.M Saive: “ We should not be treated like that”

Jean-Mi, first of all congratulations for your performance at the Europe Top12.
Thank you.

Now you will climb up even higher in the  World Ranking, but that seems to be a bit too late...Is it true that you plan to go with the ITTF to the international sport tribunal CAS to raise your claim for a Olympic start?
The ITTF have answered the Belgian Association that they are prepared to go in front of CAS. But they also set conditions.

What kind of conditions?
It is better, if I wait a bit more, before I tell you more details. I want to be as diplomatic as possible and I don’t want to add fuel to the fire. 

After Jörgen Persson and you have been equal on points and at the same position in the World Ranking for a long time, they gave the 20th Start permission  for a direct Olympia qualification to him and explained that you have to play the European Olympic qualification tournament. Is there any obvious reason?
They just told me that this is the ranking and from now on they also count the points behind the comma. Basically I think that is fine, but not, when the decision has been made after. On the 9th of December the ITTF has declared that we have to play a decision-match. At that time the ITTF knew already that Jörgen and me would be equal on points in the January ranking. Otherwise there would have been no need to decide for a decision-match. But suddenly they changed their plan and they counted the points behind the comma.

Now Jörgen Persson is in front of you with 0,25 points?
In one of the January rankings he has 0,25 points more than me.

In one of the rankings?

Yes, three different world rankings have been published in January: one is from the 3rd, one from the 4th and another one from the 5th of January.

How is this possible?
The ITTF have to give this answer, not me. Fact is: in the ranking of the 3rd we are equal on points. On the 4th of January a world ranking was published for a few hours, where Jörgen had suddenly a whole point more than me! And finally on the 5th of January a version with points behind the comma where shown. Furthermore, all reports about our equality of points, which were written, disappeared from the homepage of the ITTF.

This sounds unbelievable.
I have the printings, also the ones of the world rankings. I can prove this beyond doubt. I can just say:  It is very sad what happened. Jörgen and me have given a lot to the table tennis sport. We should not be treated like that.

Did he give a statement regarding this?
Jörgen still says, I should also be qualified. I am number 20, like him.

In future, it is planned, in case of equal points, that the last ranking counts when one of the players is better than the other one.
Yes and the interesting point is: André Damman, chairman of the ITTF ranking Committee has assured that in case of doubt, it would be possible to take the last ranking, but not to the points behind the comma.

Did he really say this?
Yes, I have a written statement from him. And the last ranking, where Jörgen and me were not equal of points, were the ranking of November. In this one, I was in front. I was totally sure, that I would be definitely qualified, otherwise I would have played the last ProTour tournament of the year in Finland.

What does Damman say now?
He says that it is unbelievable what the ITTF do with the computer. They deliver me all arguments for protest. And there is something else, what is strange.

What is it?
In the new world ranking from February, Jörgen lost 1,5 points, but he neither played in December, nor in January.

Probably he lost these points because he had to defend them from last year.
No, he also has no results from last year. The difference is inexplicable. By all means, I don’t understand it.  1,5  points is not much, but if Jörgen wouldn’t have had them in January, I would have been in front of him. It is really a sad story: The ITTF established a rule, then they changed it and after all they did not follow this rule.

Why not?
The rule says: the Olympia direct qualification will be made with the first ranking of the year 2008. The first ranking was published on the 3rd of January and here were no comma behind the figure. At this time Jörgen and me were equal on points.

What will future bring?
I don’t know. Now it is the turn of ITTF. I don’t want to bring trouble, I just want to be treated by respect. My life will not be strongly changed, if I have only played just 5 times at the Olympic Games instead of 6 times. But, of course, I am still hoping for a fair solution.

Not only we from andro, for sure all your fans around the world wish you all the best for a happy end in this matter and cross fingers for you.
Thank you very much.

 

WTTC- Pre-View: Germany´s teams with a lot of self-confidence on their way to China

We are back, also without Timo Boll. With this attitude in mind, Germany’s men team is going to the team World Championships , starting on January 24th in Guangzhou (South China)
The shock about the absence of top player – Timo has been trying to shake off an inflammation of the patella tendon for weeks  - lasted only briefly. But then Germany’s men team rolled up their sleeves und Christian Süß said: “Now, everyone of the team is demanded. We are also strong enough without Timo, everyone is able to win one match during a game, so we can reach three points at the end.”
andro-star Christian Süß, who turned to the alpha leader of the team due to his charismatic performance at the team World Championships 2006 is optimistic:” I think, it is absolutely possible to reach the quarterfinal also without Timo.”
Men’s national coach Richard Prause believes the same:” We still have a very strong team and we don’t have to hide. With this self-confidence we shall go to China.”
The DTTB-team won at the Team World Championships 2004 in Katar the silver medal and two years later in Bremen the bronze medal. At both tournaments, the German team just lost against World Champion China and won all other matches and their advancement  to the top of the world  was confirmed by the first victory of the European Championships in Belgrade 2007. This points out the class of the German team.
Christian Süß, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Bastian Steger, Patrick Baum and, as a replacement for Timo Boll called up Jörg Rosskopf, definitely have a chance to reach a top three ranking in their group C, where Japan and Russia seems to be the strongest opponents.    
Against their other opponents France, Serbia and Slowakia, the Germans are favourite, even without Timo Boll. A place in the top three becomes mandatory, if they want to look further up: the winners of the four groups (with each six teams) get a place in the quarterfinal, the second-placed teams of groups play against ranked No.3 teams of the other groups and the winners get the four last quarterfinal tickets. “Of course, we would like to reach the quarterfinal directly being No. 1 in the group”, said Süß. But he also knows:”This will not be easy, particularly when we start against Russia. For sure, this match will already lead the way.”
Germany’s women start in Guangzhou whit the same goals as the men. “Our goal is number 1 to 3 in the group”, says women national coach Jörg Bitzigeio, “and the chance to reach our goal is good.” But Bitzigeio also added: “There are just a few teams, we can say  definitely: this match we win for sure.” The core of this team is formed by two andro-players: Wu Jiaduo and Elke Wosik shall count to the regulars. On the third position, Bitzigeio has the choice between conter-player Zhenqi Barthel and Amelie Solja, who plays with long pimples on backhand and short pimples on forehand an unorthodox offensive game.
With 21-year old Barthel and just 17-year old WTTC debutante Solja and without Nicole Struse, who is currently out of shape, the German team got a new face. “For me the situation is quite unfamiliar”, Elke Wosik admitted. “ Until yet, I have never played World Championships or European Championships without Nicole at my side. Our team is great. We can push each other.”
Wosik is satisfied with the draw, as well. “Our group is fine, everything is possible”, says the 34-years old. Hongkong is deemed to be the favourite, and against Austria the last two games have been lost, but no one is unbeatable in our group. Against Belarus, Spain and Thailand the Germans seems to be favourite. A lot of things depends on Wu Jiaduo, who played outstanding results during the last months. The question will be, if she can also show her advancement  to the top of the world in her country of birth, China. andro-star Dudu does not feel additional pressure, even as the World Championships are held in her native country. “I am concentrated on my tactic, on my opponents and our team”, says the 30-years old. At least two Chinese fans will support her: ”My parents will be there”.  In China she does not feel especially under investigation –  at least not yet.

WTTC-Draw

 

Speed-gluing series part 11: Germany’s advantage of experience

For the youth, the future has already begun. Since the 1st of January 2008 the speed glue ban started on international floor for the young generation of athletes, for adults this ban will be effected after the Olympic Games in Beijing.
For the national competitions, the speed glue ban was brought forward by the German Table Tennis Association (DTTB): since the 1st of September 2007 youth players in Germany have to be ready that their rackets will be tested in regard to harmful organic solvents.
At three national tournaments this method already took place: at DTTB Top48 cadets in Hude, at DTTB Top48 juniors and at DTTB Top16 tests were be made with the controlling system “Enez”. “All investigations have been negative”, reports DTTB general secretary Matthias Vatheuer. Furthermore all players had the opportunity for a voluntary testing of their rackets. Especially the cadets in Hude took this possibility. Due to the fact that all investigations were negative, doubts about the functionality of the Enez-box occur. ”The testers had the opinion that the box always shows the green light”, says Günter Köcher. “Because of that we did a test with a piece of paper and we put prohibited glue on it”, explained the youth secretary. The result: red. The Enez box worked well and also all investigations on the national stage were without any problems. At all three tournaments we followed the same system: in every playing round tables have been drawn from a lot and tested afterwards. The referee went to the table with the Enez-box and tested the rackets of both players. “We did not prey on the players, we just did selective tests”, says Köcher. The DTTB youth secretary is sure: ”We did better testing than the ITTF.”
The investigation system, which has been used in Seligenstadt at the German Youth Open was in fact less convincing. In the morning, players have been drawn from a lot and some hours in advance they got the information that their rackets will be tested. 30 minutes before their match they had to give their rackets away and shortly before the start of their matches they got them back. Also in Seligenstadt voluntary testing of rackets was offered and many of the participants made use of it – but here 25% of the rackets failed to be o.k.! At official investigations during the German Youth Open some rackets were also positively tested, so that some athletes, also the British youth national player Gavin Evans, had to play with another racket. 
Vatheuer guesses that the differences of the testing results can occur due to the fact that the speed glue ban was handled early on time in Germany and that everybody already got some experience with this topic. The German players know the right handling of the new equipment e.g. new rubbers need to be ventilate before using. At least many young players of other associations still have to learn a lot, but also the ITTF might ask itself, how valuable tests are, when the players already know hours before that they will be tested. Junior national coach Istvan Korpa put it in a nutshell: “Here, changes have to be effected.”

 

Interview: „Good practice and good material are the key”

andro coach Stephan Schulte-Kellinghaus who is working as a coach for the Western German table tennis association has experienced how the German youngsters started into the era beyond speed-gluing at the national highlight events DTTB Top48 and Top16.

Stephan, you have been at the DTTB Top16 and Top48 tournaments where speed-gluing was already forbidden for the participating cadets and youth players. What are your impressions? Is table tennis now a differently game?
No, of course not. But in the technical part, one had notice that for achieving a good topspin,you have to work more with your legs and your hips. If your racket is different and a bit more slowly, you have to strengthen the athletic component.

Ricardo Walther and Robin Malessa, the two andro-players, also belong to your fosterlings. How did they present themselves?
At he Top48, Robin won and Ricardo was third, at the Top 16 it was vice versa: Ricardo won and Robin was third, he just lost against Ricardo. Both of them played especially over the table, so at short-short-game, considerably better. But also in total their error rate  was lower. In the past, we have concentrated our practise on these points.

How long both of them play without speed-gluing?
That is an interesting story: In the West-Germany table tennis association we have already decided in summer that we will not allow speed-gluing anymore for the players of our trainings-pool...

Which age group is that?
This it the age from 11 to 14years. Of course, we can make just recommendations. We also recommend to our other players to stop speed-gluing as early as possible. But we explicitly opened a backdoor for two of our players: Ricardo Walther and Robin Malessa. We told both of them in summer, that we have no objections, if they want to go on with speed-gluing, because both were candidates for Youth European Championships and it was also sure that they would play in the 3rd or 2nd league of seniors.

How did the boys react?
Robin said: “Anyway, if I have to stop on the 1st of January, than I stop directly.”
Ricardo needed a bit more respite and then after two or three days he decided to stop directly, as well. But both of them have already played PLASMA rubbers, which have a very good quality.

Which problems increase during changeover?
You can see this very clearly in the rallies topspin-topspin, also at tournaments on  the national stage. The ball arrives a bit more slowly and so many players are wrong in estimating the bounce of the ball and hit him, when it is already falling down. “Particularly clay court tennis is played”. Looking at Robin and Ricardo this nearly never happened. It seemed to be good that our boys have more experience with non speed-gluing play than most of the others.
But we were not the only ones, who have reacted so early. From summer on, speed-gluing was completely forbidden for youth players in Hesse.

What point of view do Robin and Ricardo have today?
Generally speaking, they are very satisfied. For them the procedure of gluing were very bothering. I know, that once Robin had a relapse: At the International Portugal Youth Open he glued once. But this was more a psychological problem, because all of his opponents still glued and at this time he was not in a good shape, so he thought that otherwise he would be disadvantaged.

How important is the psychology concerning the speed-glue ban?
In my opinion, it is very important. My tip for all coaches: from the first, all players should have good equipment, but all of them have to learn how to handle the new equipment. The attitude is very important. I think, it is not a coincidence that especially our players reacted like that and directly stopped speed gluing last summer.  I was very impressed by the attitude of our players. Other players were not able to react like ours did. These players did not have such an attitude.

Did their waiver of speed gluing finally paiy only  because of their advantage in experience to the rivalries?
Yes, I think so. At the national ranking tournament, Robin won two matches, which are very interesting in this context: one match against a player, who was not able to fix his rubber on the blade and another one against a player, who was complaining the whole time about his equipment and its slowness.

And what happened, in case a non gluing player plays against a speed gluing player?
There is an interesting statement from Nadine Bollmeier, who also belongs to the andro-Team. She says that she has also disadvantages against players, who are not speed-gluing anymore, because the bounce of the ball is different.

Keyword: racket investigations? Does it work?
On the national stage, controls have been done.At the West-Germany Cadet Championships two referees have been assigned, but controlls could not be done because there was no investigation equipment.  The boxes were not  available at that time.

Other German associations have reported about these problems as well...do they also contol the thickness of the rubbers? 
From time to time they control the thickness of the rubber. If players have rubbers on their racket, which are usually not played often, the referees also control these checking it with the ITTF list of approved rubbers.

The question of thickness could be interesting, in case rubbers will be tuned.
I am very annoyed that now tuner and other stuff are existing. I can understand that the companies want to make profit, but I am looking for a rule, where the players just fix their tubbers on the blades and play.

Maybe the rubbers are not good enough?
My impression is: the quality of the rubbers is continuously getting better. Anyway, the PLASMA rubbers are good und I heard that soon a new generation of rubbers will be produced. This one should be even better.

From what level do the rubbers with integrated speed-glue effect make sense? 
I had very good experiences with the new PLASMA rubbers at the talent-camps.
I saw many young children with modern techniques like Spin-Block e.g. – like one have played with speed-glued rubber. In former times that would have been impossible with non speed-glued rubbers. Especially with the backhand it is very popular to play different kind of spin-techniques and not only classical blocks.
Therefore it is absolutely great when players are able to play these techniques because the tension of the surface delivers the necessary basis for it.

Do you think tuners will disappear from the market?

I don’t know. But it is sure that the tuners bring two practical disadvantages:
Many players have the problem to get the same playing performances after each tuning. My colleague also gave me the feedback that many players have the problem to fix the rubber on the blade. Our players made very good experiences with the new andro glue (FREE GLUE) My wish is: take a VOC free glue, which works good, fix the rubber on the blade – and then everything is fine. Unfortunately the ITTF is not able to formulate such a rule, so that it works out well.

Do you think the speed-glue ban is the right way?
It is a good way and it is important that we stop the dangerous substances, but still too many backdoors exist . I hope that the new generation of rubbers is so good, that more players decide to play with these rubbers. 

In which direction does the development of table tennis go?

Materialvorstellung: andro ROXON - POWER ON!

In the year 2000 andro introduced its first generation of TENSOR rubbers.
Back in these days already a much promising alternative to speed-gluing.
Nobody had imagined that speed-gluing would once completely vanish from table tennis.
Since then we have continuously driven the development of our rubbers aiming to close the performance gap to speed-glued rubbers.
Today we are ready - we don't need any more speed glue. We have ROXON!

Finally: Strong strokes with power-sound, highest precision, variation and stability with killer-topspins!
And all that: Without speed-gluing. For the best players with the highest demands.
ROXON - thanks to TENSOR BIOS.

ROXON 500pro The top athlete is our most critical customer. Right he is because his level of playing table tennis is so sophisticated that he is also setting high standards for his body and his material. The ROXON 500pro is designed for exactly this technically elaborate high-class player. Due to an optimised surface net structure the player can generate utmost stroke dynamic with this rubber. Precision and stability, broad sound and an exercise book flying curve: that these effects can be reached with speed-glue only belongs to the past from now on. ROXON is the future!   The rubber for the absolute top-player! Utmost speed-glue feeling and endurance! S 115  SP 107  C 70& 112256   1,8/ 2,0/ max  red + black RSP € 41,90

ROXON 450 The demand for the material is growing with the playing level. With his balanced technical skills the player of the ROXON 450 is able to ideally control this rubber' s power and dynamic. The athlete benefits from the reduced rubber weight of the ROXON 450 by faster and more precise arm movements. The stabilisation in the molecular caoutchouc layer results in a high abrasion resistance - long endurance and a shiny surface are the impressive evidence. The rebound effect will inspire all former speed-gluing players also during non-centred hits. The secret lies in the rubber mixture, not in the glue!  The rubber for ambitious players of all playing levels! Utmost speed-glue feeling and endurance! S 112  SP 106  C 75  1,8/ 2,0/ max   112255 red + black RSP € 41,90

andro Kids Open- talent cup with new name

Since 1988 Borussia Düsseldorf organises once a year the biggest European table tennis talent tournament. During the past 18 events the cup was announced as andro table tennis Kinderolympiade (andro kids Olympics). From now on the fans of the fastest sport on earth should memorise the following new name: the andro Kids Open.
Reason change of the name is the Olympic name and the symbol which have been legally protected in the meantime. Not only the Olympic rings logo but all other "Olympic" words must not be used any more.