ITTF Europe Top 16 Cup,
Just two days after 22nd birthday, Russia’ s Yana NOSKOVA received special invitation. No. 28th in Europe will compete for a first time at the ITTF Europe Top 16 Cup. This came as a outcome of the another withdrawal – this time the competition was shaken from the top. Top seeded Petrissa SOLJA of Germany canceled her arrival to the in Gondomar, Portugal in eve of the of the tournament (from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th February).
NOSKOVA was the member of the Russian team in October at the LIEBHERR 2015 European Championships. They reached the bronze medal.
In The Women’s Event the top seed now is Elizabeta SAMARA of Romania. Also will play HU Melek of Turkey, reigning champion LIU Jia of Austria, Georgina POTA (Hungary), followed by Tetyana BILENKO (Ukraine), SHEN Yanfei (Spain), Polina MIKHAILOVA (Russia), Sabine WINTER (Germany), WU Jiaduo (Germany), Sofia POLCANOVA (Austria), NI Xialian (Luxembourg), Kristin SILBEREISEN (Germany), Bernadette SZOCS (Romania) Viktoria PAVLOVICH (Belarus) and Leila OLIVEIRA (Portugal).
in Men’s event the top seeded, European Championships and European Games champion, OVTCHAROV will fight for the third title at the ITTF Europe Top 16 Cup. Lausanne’s gold medalist Marcos FREITAS, the host nation favorites. Seeded no. three is the player who participated 18 times and won four titles, Vladimir SAMSONOV of Belarus.
In Portugal will also play Andrej GACINA (Croatia) and on the list are also the members of the European Championships golden team Stefan FEGERL (Austria) and Robert GARDOS (Austria). Seeded no. eight is Panagiotis GIONIS (Greece), followed by Tiago APOLONIA (Portugal), Pär GERELL (Sweden), Simon GAUZY (France), Alexander SHIBAEV (Russia), Ruwen FILUS (Germany), Kristian KARLSSON (Sweden), Bastian STEGER (Germany), João MONTEIRO (Portugal) and Adrien MATTENET (France).