16 Sep 2020

A wedding in the table tennis community ready for the ITTF restart; Payer Watch goes all the way across Europe and Africa.

Here’s the latest from the stars of the show:

by Kabir Nagpal

Anolyn celebrates Yosh’s big day

Special days are always better in the presence of family and your close ones. For the Vanuatu star, Yoshua Shing, it was the company of his close friend Anolyn Lulu and his family as the table tennis athlete tied the knot last week.

Everyone at the ITTF wishes the new couple a safe and healthy future!

Training for Pizzas, and defeating the pandemic like a Boss!

 

Sweden’s Kristian Karlsson knows what every athlete lives by : a pizza only tastes good after some rigorous exercise!

 

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It’s a good day for pizza(s) in the evening! #butterfly #hawaii?

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Following that example was fellow European Elizabeta Samara, who makes Mondays look oh-so-good after making a stunning comeback from being diagnosed with COVID-19. A true warrior, she is already back to training and looks in great shape.

We are so proud of you, Elizabeta!

 

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My monday❤️💪 #top #practicemakesperfect #back

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Meanwhile, the Romanian Bernadette Szocs had an impressive weekend as she finally celebrated winning first place at the Romanian national championships with her team, CSA Steaua.

Congrats, Bernie!

 

We also saw true proper team spirit coming through from India’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, who sent his best wishes to his team Sokołów S.A. Jarosław for their first match in Polish Superliga, after he was prevented from joining them due to COVID-19 travel restrictions:

The best of last week

Regular readers of Player Watch are certain to be expecting their favourite athletes preparing for ITTF restart, and here we have a selection of some of our favourite posts from the past week:

Cédric Nuytinck is making sure he is in shape – even over the weekend!

 

Meanwhile, Natalia Partyka is taking a well-deserved break with the sun at the beach – all while staying Socially distant, of course!

 

And in Africa, we have Omar Assar, who was featured this week with a riveting interview continues his training with that classic smile!

 

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The best start to a beautiful day ☀️ 🏃

A post shared by Omar Assar عمر عصر (@omarassar) on


Somewhere close by is Omar’s African colleague, Dina Meshref who also has no plans of slowing down in this hiatus, and improving everyday.

 

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🏓💪🏻

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Finally, Germany’s Patrick Franziska reminds us all the most important thing to practice in table tennis is the service – even with a slight twist if possible!

 

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Practicing my 👻serve

A post shared by Patrick Franziska (@patrickfranziska) on

General News Omar Assar Dina Meshref Patrick Franziska Bernadette Szocs Kristian Karlsson Sathiyan Gnanasekaran Elizabeta Samara Natalia Partyka Cedric Nuytinck Yosh Shing