ETTU website published today an article about the portuguese table tennis players. "We can find three talented Portuguese sportsmen in this season of Champions League, namely Marcos Freitas, Tiago Apolónia and João Monteiro. Two of them play in a top clubs in Germany, as Freitas is represented by Borussia Düsseldorf and Apolónia is the member of TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen. The third one, Monteiro competes in the Italian team of Sterilgarda Castelgoffredo. They have altogether five victories and six losing games in this year of the tournament. Marcos Freitas (Düsseldorf) is unbeaten so far, because he has two winning games against Wang Xin (Hennebont) and Allan Bentsen (Roskilde). He probably will stay in Germany, especially his team-mate, Dimitrij Ovtcharov leaves to Charleroi. João Monteiro had the biggest challenge in the first four rounds, as he had to play against extremely good athletes, like for example Bastian Steger (Müller-Frickenhausen), Jörgen Persson (Lombard BVSC) or Werner Schlager (SVS Niederösterreich). He managed to win over Steger, but he was defeated by the other ones and moreover by the Japanese teenager, Kenta Matsudaira (also Müller-Frickenhausen). Strictly speaking he fought with the strongest opponents compare with Freitas and Apolónia, as they were seeded only number three in their teams. Last but not at least we mention the third Portuguese talent, Tiago Apolónia, who couldn't beat Torben Wosik and Magnus Molin (Angers), but he was able to win vs. Alfredo Carneros (San Sebastian). As we can see the Portuguese players become better and better and it isn't a big surprise if any of them defeat an European top sportsman in ECL".

photo: Matthias Ernest

Portugal's Marcos Freitas returned on Sunday to Germany, after spending a few days in his hometown since Borussia Düsseldorf will receive SV Plüderhausennext next Wednesday 3 December at 7:00pm, in the match regarding the ninth journey of the 1st German League. Düsseldorf will align with the Portuguese Marcos Freitas (no.76) and the Germans; Timo Boll (no.5), Dimitrij Ovtcharov (no.14) and Christian Süß (no.44). Plüderhausen will play with the Serbian Aleksandar Karakasevic (no. 54), Hong Kong’s Leung Chu Yan (no. 58), the Polish Jacub Kosowski (no. 137) and the Hungarian Zsolt Petö.

photo: Matthias Ernest

Sadness for Portugal’s Marcos Freitas world’s number 76, who lost in the Round of 64 of the Men’s Singles event at the Erke German Open in Berlin on Friday 21th November 2008. Freitas was defeated by the Chinese born Argerntina’s Liu Song World’s number 72, in four games. Marcos played well and fought to make the turnabout to take the lead but he lost the last two sets by the narrowest of margins. He lost 12-10, 11-7, 7-11, 12-10, 13-11.

photo: ITTF

Success for Portugal’s Marcos Freitas World’s number 76, in the qualification stage of the Men’s Singles event at the Erke German Open in Berlin on Thursday 20th November 2008. Freitas won both matches in five games. He beat the polish Szymon Malicki in his opening match in the Group before overcame the ever improving and surprising eighteen year old Matiss Burgis of Latvia. He succeeded 11-8, 11-7, 11-6, 3-11, 11-4. With this victories the young Portuguese player reached the Main Draw where he will face tomorrow at 1:00pm the chinese born Argentina's Liu Song World's number 72.

The Portuguese Marcos Freitas World's number 76 and Borussia Düsseldorf's player, travels today to Berlin to participate at the Erke German Open, an event that will be held from 19th to 23rd December. Portugal's player will only play the men's singles tournament. Thursday morning 20 November in the Men's Singles Qualification Round, Marcos will face Poland's Szymon Malicki (no.304) and in the afternoon he meets Latvia's Matiss Burgis (no.207).