by Simon Daish
Jon Persson opened the night in style for the French club, prevailing against defensive specialist Panagiotis Gionis in an epic full distance battle (11-6, 7-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-5). With momentum on their side, Jens Lundqvist and João Geraldo saw off Pavel Sirucek (11-5, 11-9, 11-6) and Marek Badowski (11-7, 11-4, 11-3) respectively to clinch two more group points for the hosts.
The other Group C encounter was hosted in Germany where FC Saarbrücken proved too strong for Danish visitors Roskilde Bordtennis BTK61. Patrick Franziska impressed for the home team with positive outings against Tamas Lakatos (11-6, 11-8, 11-6) and Zhai Yujia (11-5, 11-7, 5-11, 11-6) with the latter player also losing out to Cristian Pletea (11-8, 13-11, 5-11, 7-11, 11-7).
Group D continues to look like a two-horse race for top spot after Borussia Düsseldorf and AS Pontoise-Cergy came through their third round of group fixtures with two further points apiece to celebrate.
Timo Boll, Kristian Karlsson and Anton Källberg handed defending champions Borussia Düsseldorf its third consecutive win with a powerful 3-0 display at home to TTC Ostrava 2016. The result was matched by AS Pontoise-Cergy although you could argue that it was a much closer affair with Tristan Flore, Mattias Falck and Can Akkuzu all requiring five games to get the job done in their respective fixtures.
Stella Sport La Romagne continues to trail Group B leaders TTSC UMMC by just a single point after the French and Russian teams prevailed on home soil against K.S. Dekorglass Dzialdowo and SPG Walter Wels. The picture is similar in Group D with Russia’s TTC Fakel Gazprom Orenburg and German rivals Post SV Mühlhausen earning 3-0 victories over Eslovs Ai Bordtennis and G.V. Hennebont respectively.