11/25/2008 2008 ERKE German Open

At the Erke German Open staged in Berlin from Wednesday 19th to Sunday 23rd November 2008, Romania’s Adrian Crisan was disqualified owing to a racket irregularity following his third round Men’s Singles match.

The German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) published an article on their website www.dttb.de in order to clarify the matter.

Following is the unedited translation of the article.

 11/23/2008 2008 ERKE German Open

Two years without a Men’s Singles title on the ITTF Pro Tour then, like the proverbial London bus, having waited and waited two come at once.

On Sunday 2nd November, Timo Boll won the Men’s Singles title at the Erke Austrian Open, three weeks later and Sunday 23rd November 200 he captured gold on home soil at the Erke German Open. At the final hurdle Timo Boll beat Chinese Taipei’s Chuan Chih-Yuan in five games.

 11/23/2008 2008 ERKE German Open

Austria's Liu Jia clinched the Women’s Singles title at the Erke German Open in Berlin on Sunday 23rd November 2008 and in so doing won her second career Women’s Singles final on the ITTF Pro Tour.

She beat her German neighbour, Wu Jiaduo, in five games to secure victory; a disappointment for the home crowd but a new milestone for Wu Jiaduo.

It was her first ever Women’s Singles final on the ITTF Pro Tour.

 11/23/2008 2008 ERKE German Open

Hong Kong suffered at the semi-final stage of the Men’s Singles event at the Erke German Open in Berlin on Sunday 23rd November 2008; both Cheung Yuk and Jiang Tianyi suffered defeat.

However, a semi-final place for Cheung Yuk was as the seeding predicted; he was seeded no.4; whilst for Jiang Tianyi it was far better than expected.

He was the no.13 seed.

 11/23/2008 2008 ERKE German Open

Germany’s Wu Jiaduo, in fine form in the team event, continued that good form in the semi-finals of the Women’s Singles event at the Erke German Open in Berlin on Sunday 23rd November 2008.

In a tense seven games duel she recovered from a two games to nil deficit to beat Italy’s Nikoleta Stefanova to book her place in a Women’s Singles final on the ITTF Pro Tour for the first time in her career; her previous best being a semi-final appearance in September 2006 at the Serbian Open in Belgrade.

 11/22/2008 2008 ERKE German Open

Defeat in the final of the Women’s Team event and it was defeat in the final of the Men’s Team competition at the Erke German Open in Berlin on Saturday 22nd November 2008.

Germany lost to Poland.

The Polish contingent of Lucjan Blaszczyk, Jakub Kosowski and Wang Zeng Yi overcame the German team comprising Christian Süss, Bastian Steger and Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth by three matches to one.

 11/22/2008 2008 ERKE German Open

Singapore captured the Women’s Team title at the Erke German Open in Berlin on Saturday 22nd November 2008 overcoming the host nation by three matches to one in the final.

The top seeds justified their exalted position at the top of the draw; for Germany it was the silver medal but, after a disappointing performance at the Liebherr European Championships in October in St Petersburg and similarly a below par result at the Beijing Olympic Games in August, it was a most certainly a confidence boosting effort.