Serbia and Slovenia couldn’t beat them in Group B. Neither could England, Sweden or Portugal in the main draw. Even the top-seeded Romania, who swept Slovakia in the quarterfinals and the Netherlands in the semifinals, looked like a far inferior foe to their opponent in the Finals.
So did anyone unfortunate enough to face Germany’s women’s team in the ETTU European Table Tennis Championships 2025.
With their 3-0 victory against Romania on Sunday, Germany won their third consecutive gold medal at the European Team Championships on Sunday. Sabine Winter (Women’s Singles No. 28), Yuan Wan (No. 62), Annett Kaufmann (No. 65), Nina Mittelham (No. 69) and Mia Griesel (No. 210) earned their country’s tenth gold medal, and they did so without losing a single individual match.
Romania’s team of Bernadette Szőcs (No. 16), Elizabeta Samara (No. 32), Adina Diaconu (No. 75), Andreea Dragoman (No. 86) and Elena Zaharia (No. 197) earned their third consecutive silver medal after falling to Germany in three games on Sunday. Before the finals, Romania had only lost three individual matches: one against Luxembourg in the group stage, and two against Serbia in the main draw Round of 16.
Kaufmann started the finals for Germany against Szőcs, and the two athletes traded wins throughout this five-game match. Three of the five games were decided by five points or less.
Ultimately, Germany took the first point of the finals thanks to strong outings from Kaufmann in the first (11-4) and final (11-5) games of the match.
Winter continued Kaufmann’s momentum in the second match by taking the first two games over Samara, 11-5 and 11-8. Samara responded with an 11-8 win in the third game, but Winter took the fourth game to put Germany up two points.
Mittelham and Dragoman then played three close games, with the first one ending in a 14-12 victory for Mittelham. Both players then traded 11-8 victories, which put Germany ahead two games to one. And in the next game, Mittelham closed out the ETTU European Championships 2025 with an emphatic 11-5 victory to win Germany the gold medal.
To make it to the finals, Germany and Romania swept bronze medalists Portugal and the Netherlands respectively in the semifinals on Saturday. For their performances, Shao Jieni (No. 55), Fu Yu (No. 57), Matilde Pinto (No. 454) and Júlia Leal (No. 668) accepted their country’s third consecutive bronze medal.
After starting this tournament at the bottom of Group C, the 18th-seeded Netherlands stunned both Spain and 2023 bronze medalists France to earn a spot in the main draw. Their team of Britt Eerland (No. 68), Shuohan Men (No. 236), Li Jie (No. 250) and Tanja Helle (NR) continued winning until they reached the semifinals, where they lost to Romania.
ETTU’s next event, the 2025 JOOLA EYS Czech Open, will run from Oct. 22 - 26 in Plzen, Czech Republic.
