[Dokument drucken]

andro Newsletter June 2008

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

The countdown is in process: on August 13th the table tennis competitions start at the Olympic Games in Beijing. Five players of the andro-team will participate – among others Jean-Michel Saive. After a long tug of war with the ITTF, the Belgian andro star is looking forward to his 6th Olympia participation. What happened and what is the result of the legal conflict between Jean-Mi and the Belgian Federation on one hand and the ITTF on the other hand? Answers to these questions are to be found in this newsletter.
The Olympic Games will be a turning point, also for active players in all leagues at the basis. Because after that speed-gluing and the use of Boosters and Tuners are definitely banned.
It must be pointed out that there are some new regulations concerning the handling of the new VOC free glues. In this newsletter, the andro material specialists give useful advice how to deal with the new equipment.
Furthermore, Germany’s No.1 junior player reassures those ones who still have the switch to VOC free products ahead. Erik Bottroff, German Youth Champion, tells how the change to rubbers with an integrated speed glue effect gave new experiences to him.

We wish you a lot of fun with our new newsletter!

Your andro team

Pro Tour
Drumbeat effected by Christian Süß

Christian Süß belongs to the big winners of the last week. Fist, his individual Olympic qualification and two weeks ago the German Team Championships title with Borussia Düsseldorf. But already in the second half of March, a strong drumbeat was effected by the andro star, which especially pleased men’s national coach Richard Prause: At the Qatar Open in Doha, Christian has beaten Olympic Champion Ryu Seung-Min! “ I was mentally in a good shape and I played a good match”, said Süß happy. “I think, this was one of the best matches, I have ever played at a Pro Tour tournament.”
Being no. 8 of the World Ranking, the South Korean was ranked 30 places better than Süß. But at the end the German won 4:1. His explication for this: “I went to this match without any pressure. Maybe this was the key for my success.”
At the drawing the 22-year-old has reacted very cool, when he heard about the estimated duel with WTTC bronze medal winner Ryu Seung Min:” I don’t think about an easy or difficult draw. Every match against a top player is already a win. One has not everyday the possibility to play against a player from the Top10 in the world and because of that one can learn so much in those matches”, he explained and mentioned his theme: “Basically, I see this match as a great chance for me.”
But Christian almost missed his chance in Doha. In his first match against the international rather second-rate Brazilian Gustavo Tsuboi, he was down 1:3 in sets, but after a race of catch up, Süß won in the last set 12:10.
“After the victory against Tsuboi, I felt free in my mind”, analysed Christian. And his following triumph against Olympic Champion Ryu gave him additional wings against Zhang Jike in the round of the last 16. But after another good performance the German had finally to congratulate the rising Chinese star for a 4:2 victory. After that there was no reason for Süß to regret his missed chance for the quarterfinal. “It was very important for me to check my level and to earn as much self-confidence as possible so short before the Olympic Qualification. I did, especially with the victory against Ryu.”
In Qatar, Süß became almost something like a bogey opponent for the Korean. Also in the double competition Süß and his Düsseldorfer club-mate Dimitrij Ovtcharov got the upper hand against Ryu and Yoon Jae Young and finally won 4:1.
In the following quarterfinal Süß and his partner were finally stopped by the Chinese world-class double Wang Liqin (World Champion) and Wang Hao (World Cup Winner) without winning any set.
Less reasons than Süß for being satisfied had to be announced for the two andro colleagues Wu Jiaduo and Elke Schall in Doha. After her last sixteen participation at the Kuwait Open one week before, Wu had to leave the tournament already in the first round after her defeat against South Korean Moon Hyun Jung by 1:4. Like Wu Jiaduo, also Elke Schall lost after a successful qualification in round No.1 against China’s Liu Shiwen.
In the double competition, the European Championships 3rd placed double Wu and Schall lost after winning the qualification to Kim Kyung and Park Mi Young from South Korea in the first round of the main draw.
But at the end of May the two andro players had a good reason to be happy at the Japan Open. With the German National team, Wu Jiaduo and Elke Schall have defeated the WTTC 3rd ranked team Hongkong very surprisingly 3:0. The two andro players generated a great double performance by beating Tie Yana/Lin Ling 3:2. Furthermore, Wu Jiaduo won 3:1 against Lau Sui Fei. (the third point for German Team was made by Zhenqi Barthel.)
Elke Schall convinced after many victories in the single competition, as well. Among others, Elke won against Rumania’s Elizabeta Samara 4:0 – before she lost in the main draw against No.3 world ranked player (Li Xiaoxia (China) 1:4.
Wu Jiaduo was very close to reach the quarterfinal against world ranked No.10 Kim Kyung Ah (South Korea). Due to the fact of a painful strain in her playing arm, Dudu had to fight even harder against one of the best defending players of the world. At the end, she lost razor-thin in the 7th set 9:11.

Olympic-Qualification
Allez Jean-Mi! Go to Bejing!

Five andro stars were successful a the Olympic-Single-Qualification, including Jean-Michel Saive.

After a long lasting battle and almost endless weeks and months between hope and fear it was a happy end: At the World-Qualification for the Olympic Games, Jean -Michel Saive assured his starting place with an impressive effort. Therewith, andro star Jean-Mi wrote a chapter of table tennis history because he is one of only three athletes having been qualified for all six Olympic table tennis events organized since its introduction 1988 in Seoul. „At this stage, it is an excellent feeling“, Jean-Mi commented, „and it makes more fun to achieve such a target in competition and not at court“.
During the past months, a controversy and a juristic dispute with ITTF happened; the world federation denied the direct qualification for Saive although the Belgian has been noted in the relevant world ranking list at position 20 – albeit together with Swedish player Jörgen Persson, who was issued the last direct qualification place by ITTF. Jean-Mi was imposed to play qualifications.
The 38-year old Saive cancelled the European qualification event in April because of an injury; at the World qualification event at Budapest on the second weekend of May, andro star Jean-Mi took his last chance: Being under heavy pressure he succeeded against Alfredo Carneros from Spain (4:1) and Trinko Keen from Netherlands (4:0). His defeat against later time winner Cheung Yuk from Hongkong (2:4) didn't come into recognition because at that time it was clear that both players have managed the qualification.
„I have payed well“, Jean-Mi explained. „Of course, I was a little bit lucky because my first round opponent, Carneros, was luck of the draw.
Having now achieved this great target, Jean-Mi does not intend to continue the juristic dispute with ITTF. „I am qualified and ITTF meanwhile decided to change the relevant rules in the future. There is no sense to continue with the controversy.“
Therefore, the andro team consists of five players in the individual event of the Olympics . Following the direct qualification of international players Wu Jiaduo and Elke Schall, also Christian Süß and Polish Champion Xu Jie gained a place for the most important table tennis event. Süß and Xu Jie achieved their goal at the European qualification event in Nantes,France, each time on the penultimate day of the event and avoided possible „nail-biters“ at the final day.
After his deciding 4:1 win in the final of the second qualification round against Czech player Petr Korbel, Christian Süß was, of course, happy but also relieved: „For me, a dream comes true“ he said. „By all means I was focussed to be entitled in Bejing not only as a team player but also for the single event. Until the happy ending, Christian went through an emotional roller-coaster. Even his qualification for the 32 starting places available for Nantes,France – where 11 Olympic tickets were guaranteed, was not according to plan. After the non-expected defeat against the Portugese Tiago Apolonia, Süß stands with his back to the wall, but demonstrated coolness by winning against Belarus player Evgueni Chtchetinine (4:2) and outsider Aleksandr Smirnov.
Happy end in the preliminary round was followed in the first knockout-round by a disillusion. Even a 2:0, 3:1 set lead and a 9:6 lead in the seventh set was not enough to win and he finally lost the match again Austrian player Robert Gardos.
But just in this critical situation, Süß proved those specialized skills that are decisive for such big events.
At the beginning of the next knockout-round against Slovakia player Lubomir Pistej, Christian overcame a 1:2 fall behind and a 3:3 equalisation, showed steady nerves at 2:5 in the final set, took a time-out and succeeded at last.
Ispired by this victory he won against against Chinese player Wang Zeng Yi, playing for Poland, as well against his team mate Petr Korbel – and his dream of participating in single events in Bejing came true. „Against Apolonia and Gardos I had some good chances to win“ he explained later. „The defeats could have been avoided, although I had to overcome several balls misdirected by net or edge in the match against Gardos. Looking back at the second knockout-round, I played better, had a shrewd head and was able to verify my tactics.“
Now, he's only looking forward: „It is sure, Bejing will definitely be one of the absolute highlights of my career. I am really happy to be qualified because temporary situation in regard to my participation didn't look well.
Like Süß, also Xu Jie had to make a „detention“. Even though the Chinese born player was without defeat in the preliminary round and after a 4:1 win against Gavna Gaponova from Ukraine, she got a proper ticking-off against Li Jie (1:4) from Netherlands
But the andro player took her second chance: After wins against Georgina Pota (4:1) from Hungaria and Mie Skov (4:3) from Denmark, Xu Jie obtained her Olympic ticket by a 4:1 win against her Greece opponent Fili.
„Since several years, Olympic Games have been my great target and now I'm happy that I can participate“, Xu said not without emotion.
The battle for Olympic qualification did not went well for all andro players. Slobodan Grujic was one of the unlucky fellows. The Serbian found himself only as a spectator after defeats against local hero Christophe Legout and talented Paul Drinkall from Great Britain. And afterwards, at the world-qualification in Budapest he got an unlucky draw: Against Chinese born Kou Lei, playing for Ukraine, he lost clearly (1:4) and thereby missed the ticket for Bejing.

Erik Bottroff
The giant with the great feeling

This is for sure: within all high-quality table tennis players, Erik Bottroff is the tallest/biggest. The 18-year-old German measures 2.04m. Trend: increasing.

Since end of april it is also proofed: Erik Bottroff is also Germany’s best youth player. At the German Youth Championships in Löhne, Bottroff won the boy’s single and double competition (together with David Steinle) and pointed out his continuous upward tendency of the last years. Youth national coach Istvan Korpa was impressed: ”It was not expectable that his development would be so successful, especially not that he would reach the top of the youth. In the meantime he has already won some tournaments, also the German Youth Top12 and at the Youth World Championships he has played very good as well.”  Because of that Korpa certifies his fosterling: “He is now an inherent part in the youth national team.”
This is not an implicitness. Though he started to play table tennis already at the age of 8 years, he never belonged to the cadets national team. Also in the youth age he has been for a long time one amongst many. But andro has discovered his talent already very early: since years he belongs to the andro-team.
During the last months this was an important basic for his success because when changing his material to andro TENSOR BIOS after the speed glue ban he made some positive experiences and had fully trust in his new material. “I expected that the change would have been more difficult”, says the 18-years-old. “I did not know that directly at the beginning there will be such good rubbers.”
He was very satisfied with the PLASMA 470, the hardest rubber of the Plasma line, but now he will change to step of the most modern rubber technology: to the ROXON 500pro. He plays both rubbers in maximum thickness with his andro Super Core Cell OFF-.
In future he will serve with this combination for his new club DJK Germania Holthausen, probably at number 3, maybe in the first table. For his last club the ITTC Sachsen Döbeln, he played first at number 5 in the 2nd (Regional League), but at the end he came in some operations for the first team in Germany’s 2nd league.
His change to Holthausen does not only bring him a fixed place in the 2nd league, furthermore it brings him vocational education. After his German equivalent of GCSEs, Erik Bottroff now starts an apprenticeship at Schöler & Micke to become a businessman engaged in wholesale and export trades. “ I did not only want to do an apprenticeship”, he says, “my wish was to do something in the table tennis scene.”
Because of that, Erik decided against many other good offers, et al. against an offer from the 1st league. “I had an offer from Jülich, but just with limited quantity of matches”, he betrayed. Due to the introduction of the three-way teams, the hurdle seemed to be too high for him – preliminary.
There is no doubt that he can reach Germany’s 1st league level because Erik has many excellent premises to increase his game: he has an outstanding feeling for the ball, a short-short game over the table like not many German men, a big conspectus of the game, creativity, a witty way of playing and additionally to that he shows courage and cheekiness. Istvan Korpa comments also: “He can do so many different things with the ball over the table. When he hunkers over the table, he is very close to the net. He plays surprising balls, he is incalculable for his opponents and he has a view for tactical solutions.”
Although the physics of Germany’s youth champion is more a disadvantage than advantage. “Of course, his physical condition is not optimal for a table tennis player”, says Korpa.” He is now 2,04m and it seems to be that his growth is not yet finished.” “And furthermore”, Korpa added with a smile,” his weight is surely a bit too much for a professional player.” But he certifies his fosterling a huge ambition and maybe this is the biggest potential of Erik.
Bottroffs knows about his lack of strength and so he is working on that. “I have already upgraded my physical conditions a bit”, he says. This is also very important after the speed-glue ban. His analysis: in the short-short game over the table, the ball drops a bit more from the rubbers, so one has to work more with the whole body. But he also sees advantage in the change of material: “ When counter-spinning the ball one has more control than before.” And the variations, which come up due to the speed-gluing do not exist anymore. ”I know how to handle my new andro TENSOR BIOS rubbers, I can trust in them.”

Speed Glue ban, part 12:
andro practice tip - News you should know about gluing/ assembling of rackets

The time of speed-gluing is over. Besides the ban of glues containing volatile organic solvents (VOCs) the ITTF has additionally decided to prohibit the so called tuners and boosters.
After the summer break the last step into the new era of table tennis will be taken when punishments threaten players of all levels and ages around the globe in case of contravention.
But also in the future players will still need to glue and stick their rubbers onto the blade. The question is - how?
Some players experienced negative surprises with new glue products during the first attempts. Most complaints: Rubbers do not stick to the blade properly and once they are really fixed it is very difficult to remove them from the wood without harming blade or rubber sponge.
andro product team members have recognised these challenges at an early stage and developed new items offering the ideal solution: andro FREE.
Mature athletes however should not only be aware of the right products but also about the know-how in terms of using them.
This is a summary of what every player should know about gluing rubbers after the ban of VOCs:
The new glues are water-based and contain no volatile organic solvents. This results in three characteristics:
- the drying time of the glue extends to 5 to 10 minutes
- the new glues do not offer any speed effect - they solely have the function to fix the rubber to the wood
- water-based glues are stronger in their adhesion character

Because water-based glues make wood and rubber get a stronger adhesion the risk of damage while removing the rubbers increases. Thus all players shall prepare their blade with the special lacquer andro FREE Seal. The use of FREE Seal closes the fine pores in the veneer and protects the blade against damage. A disturbance of playing character will not occur because the VOC Free lacquer is very thin and especially developed in order not to have any impact on the blade characteristics.
After sealing the blade should dry out for 4-12 hours before the rubbers can be glued to it. Once the blade is sealed and prepared it offers ideal prerequisites: the rubber will be easy to remove when changing the rubbers the next time and no glue remains on the wood.
For players who have not yet treated their blade with andro FREE Seal realising while removing rubbers that veneer fibres tend to tear out: take care that the rubbers are removed in a rectangular way to the wood fibres - meaning from one side of the blade to the other and not from top to handle. Afterwards: Treat the blade with andro FREE Seal and use andro FREE Glue to fix the rubbers from now on.

Material intro:
andro WEGA 09 collection - something for everybody!

WEGA 09 TT Polo
New, fresh colour-ways of the successful WEGA polo: sportive-elegant shirt made of indoorDRY microfibre in combination with quickly drying structured material in the shoulder and armpit area – for highest wearing comfort. 100% polyester, indoorDRY.
302236 orange/red 302237 navy/lime 302238 deep sea/navy 302239 black/red
size XXS-4XL RSP 39,90 €

WEGA 09 WOMEN TT Shirt
Sportive-elegant women’s V-Neck shirt made of indoorDRY microfibre. Feminine, waisted cut. All colour-ways fit to the men shirts. 100% Polyester, indoorDRY.
302210 orange/red 302211 navy/lime 302212 deep sea /navy 302213 black/red
size 34-46 RSP 34,90 €

WEGA 09 Young TT Polo
Youth shirt of the WEGA 09 collection, perfectly cut for kids/teenagers. 100% cotton.
302293 deep sea /navy 302294 black/red
size 3XS-L RSP 22,90 €

YUKON TT Short
Modern short of very soft functional fabric in four colour-ways for the ideal combination with shirts NOVA, WEGA and ATANA. Two side pockets and width adjusting drawcord, no inner slip. 100% polyester, indoorDRY
312214 navy/lime 312215 navy/deep sea 312216 black/red 312217 black/orange
size 3XS-4XL RSP 25,00 €

SHIVA TT Skirt
Feminine skirt of light and elastic functional fabric. Logo stitching and white piping. Integrated hotpants make a "skort" out of this skirt. 100% polyester.
322205 black size 34-46 RSP 27,00 €

Player Portrait

News
andro Kids Open – sign in at the biggest European kids tournament

The 19th andro Kids Open (formerly called "andro table tennis kids Olympics") are coming closer and there still is the chance to sign in for this spectacular children event which will take place in Duesseldorf/ Germany from August 1st- 3rd 2008. On that weekend more than 1400 children aged between 6-15 years will join the cup to make it the biggest table tennis kids tournament in Europe.
For the first time the Kids Open are taking place already at the beginning of August because of the Olympic Games in Beijing from August 8th to 24th . Thanks to this earlier timing the participants have the unique possibility to see and play some balls with the absolute table tennis elite which will afterwards head off for China: Timo Boll, Christian Süß and Dimitrij Ovtcharov from Borussia Duesseldorf will make a stop at the andro Kids Open. Furthermore European stars like Vladimir Samsonov, Michael Maze, Werner Schlager and more can be seen live at the Olympic preparation tournament "Stars for Kids" which is happening at the same time in Duesseldorf. Deadline for entries for the andro Kids Open is July 12th, all information can be found here: http://www.borussia-duesseldorf.com/deutsch/kids_open/news.html

News
Launch of andro ROXON in China and globally

Since approximately 2 months the new andro ROXON rubber is available world-wide - and the response is overwhelming. In China the two versions of the rubber series ROXON 450 and ROXON 500pro were already presented with the andro ProTeam stars Jean-Michel Saive and Christian Suess during the World Championships in Guangzhou (see picture) and the feedback was very good.
In Germany, readers of the monthly table tennis magazine "tischtennis" were given the chance to participate in a nation-wide product test. The ROXON 450 was tested by 30 and the ROXON 500pro by 20 selected players. Overall the results in terms of playing characteristics, handling and value-for-money were good to excellent. The critical players judged the ROXON as convincing alternative to their still speed-glued rubbers. 

www.new-rubber.de or www.andro.de