Sochi to host the inaugural European U21 Championships
56 men and 56 women from 35 countries will participate in first-ever European Youth Table Tennis Championships, which will be hosted in Sochi from 2nd to 5th February of 2017.
Athletes under the age of 22 will compete in singles and doubles. One member association will be allowed to have no more than 3 men and 3 women participants.
The top seed in the men`s singles goes to Anton Kallberg from Sweden, who currently ranked No. 10 in ETTU U22 Ranking. The other Top 10 players goes as follows: Tomislav Pucar (Croatia), Can Akkuzu (France), Darko Jorgic (Slovenia), Alexandre Cassin (France), Adam Szudi (Hungary), Sadi Ismailov (Russia), Tomas Polansky (Czech Republic), Andrea Landrieu (France) and Kilian Ort (Germany).
Russian national team will be also represented by the youngest player of the tournament 14-years old Vladimir Sidorenko ( No. 28) and 15th-seeded Konstantin Chernov. There are also 7 players in reserve including Denis Ivonin, who will be first to step up if needed.
Nina Mittelham (Germany) got the top seed in the women`s singles competition. The other top seeded players are: Adina Diaconu (Roumania), Chantal Mantz (Germany), Lea Rakovac (Croatia), Audrey Zarif (France), Pauline Chasselin (FRA), Andreea Dragoman (Roumania), Natalia Bajor (Poland), Wan Yuan (Germany), Maria Malanina (RUS).
Russian national team roster will consist of 14 players including No.11 Ekaterina Guseva and No. 12 Maria Tailakova. The top junior players are Daria Chernoray, Valeria Shcherbatykh and Anastasia Kolish.