Europe is playing table tennis again. The duel between Karoline MISCHEK and LIU Jia at the Austrian Challenge played tonight in the TV Center of Austrian national broadcaster ORF was the first match in Europe after 8th March. The last event in Europe before the pandemic shutdown was the European Under 21 Championships in Varaždin whilst the players from Europe globally were active until the ITTF Challenge Plus Oman Open in Muscat on 15th March. After that date the table tennis sport stopped in Europe.
The Austrian Challenge was televised live and beside duel between MISCHEK and LIU the TV spectators were able to watch the match between Stefan FEGERL and Daniel HABESOHN. In the first round LIU overcame MISCHEK 2:1 (8:11 11:7 11:9) whilst FEGERL beat HABESOHN 2:0 (11:8 11:6).
In next round the winners and losers met in best of five games encounters and in each game the woman received a six point start in each game with exception of the decisive one. The last game started from 3:0 advantage for woman. In first match HABESOHN overcame MISCHEK 2:3 (11:9 7:11 10:12 11:7 6:8). In the duel of the winners of the first round LIU beat FEGERL 3:2 (11:7 11:3 9:11 8:11 6:3).