Semi final line up at the European Table Tennis Championships 2015

The semi final lineup at the European Table Tennis Championships has been decided.

In the Women's singles, Polina Mikhailova takes on Elizabeta Samara in the first semi final, followed by Li Jie who faces Fu Yu of Portugal.

In the Men's singles, top seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov meets Tiago Apolonia while Par Gerell will face Marcos Freitas.

Photo by courtesy of the ITTF.

Ankita Das reaches Brazil Open finals, gives Elizabeta Samara a huge fight

We really need to stand up and take notice of this girl's achievement. Absolute Respect! Please watch the video, link is in the comments.

Ankita Das has not just reached the finals of a World Tour Table Tennis tournament, which is already a great achievement. Here's more - she gave a huge fight against the World cup runner up Elizabeta Samara of Romania (who lost the World Cup final to Liu Shiwen of China) of Romania. Remember, the World cup and such elite events are dominated by the Chinese and other Asian or players of Asian origin. In fact, it is worth noting that the Romanian player is the second highest ranked non-Asian (or a player originating from an Asian nation!

Ankita stretched the world class player, ranked No. 19 in the world in two deuce games and also another close 11-9 game. Kudos to Ankita, keep going strong, work strong.

Editor

Manika Batra and Soumyajit win U 21 titles at the Brazil Open Table Tennis tournament

Manika Batra and Soumyajit Ghosh won the U 21 Girls and Boys titles at the Brazil open.
While Manika beat the host nation's Caroline Kumahara 11:5, 9:11, 12:10, 11:5 and 11:5, Soumyajit over came Benjamin Brossier of France in seven tough sets 8:11, 6:11, 11;7, 11:6, 9:11, 11:7 and 11:2.
Incidentally, Soumyajit beat G Sathiyan also of India, who won the bronze medal.

All in all, the Indian players ensured a rich medal haul with Ankita Das reaching the finals (to be played today), again beating Caroline Kumahara and Harmeet Desai (semi finals). Ankita Das faces the very strong Elizabeta Samara of Romania, who recently achieved the rare feat of an European reaching a World Cup final.

Photo source: ittf.com