05.10.05 The 1. JOOLA European Large Ball Open in Höhr-Grenzhausen on 2nd and 3rd October was a big success. Large Ball table Tennis is played with an 44mm ball, a 2 cm higher net and short pimples out rubbers.

More than 160 participants from Germany, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Hongkong, Poland, Turkey and Japan were fighting for the title of the first Large Ball Champion outside Japan. Surprisingly the Large Ball experts from Japan only were in command in the over 60s class.

Even the three times Japanese Large Ball Champion, Nishimoto, had no chance against the top players. Among others, Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth, Steffen Fetzner, Cheung Yuk, Stefan Feth, Chen Zhibin and Branka Batinic participated in this event.

The top Polish player, Lucian Blaszczyk, won the open men's class on Monday with a tight 2:1 success over JOOLA player Nico Stehle. In the women's competition the many times German Champion, Olga Nemes, clearly dominated. She played cat and mouse with her opponents and thus became number 1 in the women's A class as well as in the open class.

Jörg Rosskopf and Steffen Fetzner demonstrated the best of table tennis in their exhibition match. The finale of the 1. JOOLA European Large Ball Open was a big Farewell-Party in the hotel "Zugbrücke Grenzau". >>> Results News in the Japanese TT magazine "World Table Tennis" download here (PDF zip 1,4 MB)