Champions League Women | 5 Sep 2024
TTC Berlin eastside Returns to Champions League and Hosts Opening Stage
Photo: ttc berlin eastside
After a year of absence, TTC Berlin eastside is back in the Champions League, setting its sights on reclaiming the European crown. However, this season, the five-time Champions League winner faces the challenge of qualifying through Stage 1 of the group phase—a task made difficult by the strong competition assembled for the tournament in Berlin (7th to 8th September).
As the host of Stage 1, eastside will welcome nine teams that will compete in two groups for four spots, which will allow them to advance to Group Stage 2. The top two teams from Group A and Group B will secure their place in the next round.
A modest performance in the 2022/23 season, which saw eastside exit in the quarterfinals, followed by their absence last year, means the club must now fight its way into the Women's European Champions League through this qualifying tournament. However, eastside returns strong, with a star-studded lineup. Olympians Nina MITTELHAM and Xiaona SHAN lead the team, which also features Josephina neumann, Mia Griesel, Kathrin MÜHLBACH, Sabina SURJAN, Yaping DING, Lilian MA, Ran LI-KATH, Zhuojia HE, and Mingyang SUN.
“After being absent from Champions League last year, now of course we are looking forward to next season and we are happy to be part of Champions League again. Our first goal is now to pass first stage successful and rise up to second stage.
In any case our squad should be strong enough for this. In addition to our German top level players Nina MITTELHAM and Xiaona SHAN we have completed our team with strong Chinese players as SUNG Mingyang. Last but not least both german girls single champions Mia GRIESEL (U19) and Josi NEUMANN (U15) are part of our team. For us it is very important to help young players and this includes also Sabina SURJAN from Serbian, to go to the next level.
As I said our first goal is to rise up to second stage and with this strong team of course it is not easy to beat us. It is the DNA of the club to play always for titles,” said ttc berlin eastside womens team coach Jens RULAND.
In Group B, the hosts will face tough competition, led by Spain’s UCAM Cartagena TM, featuring Olympian Maria XIAO, alongside Sofia-Xuan ZHANG, Carmen LOZANO, Miriam SEGURA, Silvija ERDELJI, Yao LI, and Fei QI. Also in Group B is Czechia's TT Moravský Krumlov, whose roster includes Ekaterina CHERNYAVSKAYA, Anais SALPIN, Eliska SEDOVA, Lucie JANACKOVA, Daniela RUZICKOVA, Andrea SLAMOVA, Deimante ADLYTE, Sagarika MUKHERJEE, Kaushani NATH, and Alice Li Sian-CHANG. Spanish team Girbau-VIC TT is represented by Silvia COLL, Irina Gimeno FONT, Camila MOSCOSO, Abril Masdeu MIR, Martina Sans LOPEZ, Charlotte CAREY, Jiao LI, Noa MUNOZ, and Sylwia OLENDZKA. Portugal’s Uniao Sebastianense F.C. features players such as Leila OLIVEIRA, Leili MOSTAFAVI, Ines BOTELHO, Lidia MENESES, and Raquel MARTINS.
In Group A, Serbia’s Novi Sad leads the pack with Tijana JOKIC, Aneta MAKSUTI, Sara RADAK, Sladjana KNEZEVIC, Masa BOSKOVSKI, Yee Look LAM, and Sreeja AKULA. Also in this group is last year’s Europe Cup Women runner-up, Spain’s Museo De La Almendra Francisco Morales, featuring Marija GALONJA ZOLOTIC, Patricia SANTOS, Margarita FETUKHINA, Isabel CONCHILLO, Julia MARTIN, Sofia COUCE, Lucia LOPEZ, Meng JIAQI, Krystal MELENDEZ, and Eva BRITO.
Portugal’s CTM Mirandela, a quarterfinalist in last year’s Europe Cup, will be represented by Annamaria ERDELYI, Ines MATOS, Mariana SANTA, Gabriela PINA, Rita FINS, Maria RUIVO, and Yu-Jhun LI. HB Ostrov Z.S. fields players like Zdena BLASKOVA, Veronika POLAKOVA, Eliska VOZICKA, Anna STRANSKA, Linda ZADEROVA, Tatiana KUKULKOVA, Tereza PYTLIKOVA, Jana VASENDOVA, and Helena KAMARADOVA. Finally, Olympian Prithika PAVADE leads French club Saint-Denis Tennis De Table, supported by Agathe AVEZOU, Barbora BALAZOVA, Jie LI, Maria GIRLEA, Célia SILVA, Karen RAHARIMANANA, Hsing-Yin LIU, Chengzhu ZHU, and Qiwen XIAO.
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