by Simon Daish
TTSC UMMC welcomed Eslovs Ai Bordtennis in Group B as the team of Alexander Shibaev, Grigory Vlasov and Andrej Gacina narrowly edged out the Swedish opposition.
The opening encounter saw Alexander Shibaev hand the Russian side an early lead, prevailing over Daniel Kosiba across four games (11-7, 11-13, 11-7, 11-7).
Xu Hui gave the visitors hope with victories in both of his fixtures, but positive outings from Andrej Gacina and Grigory Vlasov in their respective encounters against Robert Svensson (11-9, 11-6, 11-13, 11-1) and Truls Moregard (11-7, 11-6, 5-11, 11-5) handed UMMC a second group win and subsequently left Eslovs disappointed for a third consecutive match.
Over in Group A, the defending champions side TTC Fakel Gazprom Orenburg extended its 100% winning record with a 3-1 home triumph over Sporting Clube De Portugal.
Despite a notable effort from João Monteiro, who picked up an impressive result against Men’s World Cup winner Dimitrij Ovtcharov (9-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-9, 8-11), a Jun Mizutani brace and a strong outing from Vladimir Samsonov guided Orenburg to victory.
One of the standout results came in Group D as French club G.V Hennebont lost out at home to K.S. Dekorglass Dzialdowo.
The opening two group fixtures both produced narrow 2-3 defeats for the Polish side, but at the third time of asking K.S. Dekorglass Dzialdowo answered with an important win.
Wong Chun Ting and Jiri Vrablik contributed one win apiece in the early stages of the match, and while Liam Pitchford performed well for the home team, the result went in K.S. Dekorglass Dzialdowo’s favour after Yang Wang came out on top against Cedric Nuytinck in the concluding fixture of the tie.
AS Pontoise-Cergy picked up its first success of the 2017-2018 Champions League campaign with a strong away outing against K.S. Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki and there was a heroic display from Anton Källberg who helped Borussia Düsseldorf to a second consecutive win.
European Champions League: Results and Fixtures