'98 Euro Championship

By Lori Chan

This year's European Championships, held between April 25 and May 5, 1998 at the Indoor Sports Centre and Ice Rink in Eindhoven, Netherlands, featured over 390 participants from 46 different countries. For the eleven tournament days, about 19,000 spectators visited the Centre for the excitement of watching top world-ranked players take on one another. As might be expected, both the top-ranked players in Europe, Vladimir Samsonov and Ni Xia Lian, would win their respective singles' events.

Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus, currently the top-ranked European and the world's best male table tennis player, lost only one game in the last two matches of the event, that being the first game he played facing the home country favorite Trinko Keen, ranked 51 in the world. In the finals, what more could a spectator ask for than to see the top two players in the world battle for the title. Samsonov, however, would defeat Zoran Primorac of Croatia, 14, 19, 10.

Netherlands' strongest female player was knocked out of the tournament, after which she retired from the sport. Bettine Vriesekoop, eighth in Europe and thirty-fourth in the world, dropped the fifth game against Germany's Nicole Struse (second in Europe, thirteenth in the world). Struse however, ceased to advance, dropping to Tamara Boros of Croatia, world's thirty-third best. Struse's valiant effort to fight back and take the third and fourth game was followed by disappointment when she fell short in the fifth game.

Ninth in the world, Ni Xia Lian of Luxembourg, would prove why she is the top ranked female player in Europe. Taking the first two games from Boros, Xia Lian would drop the third in a close 21-19, but cruised through the fourth to take home the title.

The '98 Euro Championship not only provided top-notch play to watch, but also accommodated the players and spectators with various social events. Saturday, April 25, was set aside as a special youth day. Children were able to purchase tickets at a discounted price, and more importantly, given an opportunity to ask their own questions to the top players in a press conference arranged only for children.

Men's Singles- 1st: Vladimir Samsonov (BLR); 2nd: Zoran Primorac (CRO)

Women's Singles- 1st: Ni Xia Lian (LUX); 2nd: Tamara Boros (CRO)

Men's Doubles- 1st: V. Samsonov (BLR) / J. Rosskoff (GER); 2nd: K. Kreanga (GRE) / I. Lupuleski (YUG)

Women's Doubles- 1st: N. Struse (GER) / E. Schall (GER); 2nd: M. Svensson (SWE) / O. Badescu (ROM)

Mixed Doubles- 1st: E. Lindh (SWE) / M. Svensson (SWE); 2nd: I. Lupulesku (YUG) / O. Badescu (ROM)