Werner Schlager to particpate at the Austrian Open held at his own academy – Table Tennis News
The 2011 Austrian Open ITTF Pro Tour is scheduled from September 21 to 25 and the event will be organised at the Werner Schlager Academy. This will be the first time in the history of table tennis if not the history of sports that a player will be participating
in an event held in his own academy.
The 38-year-old Austrian player Werner Schlager will be participating at the event held at his very own academy which he decided to launch after the ITTF Training camp in 2007. He helped the young table tennis players by giving them important tips and made
a decision of launching his own academy to groom the young talent. Schlager said, “I am looking forward to realizing this project that will target I would say seventeen to eighteen year old prospects, who have professional ambitions in table tennis.”
Despite the home advantage, a victory will not come easy as he will be facing the Chinese table tennis warriors including Ma Lin, Zhang Jike, Wang Hao, Ma Long, Xu Xin and Hao Shuai. All of these players are set to fill up their bags with victories at the
Austrian Open 2011. Werner Schlager’s academy is a two sports hall complex and has a total of 50 tables, international trainer, medical care, ball machines, restaurant to welcome the players and nutritionist meeting all the standards of an international table
tennis arena.
Schlager is currently at the 24th position as per the ITTF World Ranking of September 2011 with 2202 points. He was the top table tennis player in June 2003 as he won the World Championships in Paris 2003. He overcame the Chinese mighty players
Konghui and Wang Liqin before winning the Championships. He is looking forward to the event and is hopeful to perform to his best as he said, “It is very special event for me, it feels like home, hopefully it’s an advantage.”
Werner further added that he usually practices twice a week and wants to devote more time to practice before the event, but organising such a big competition requires a lot of attention and time. It will be interesting to see how the Austrian Open progresses
but Werner’s name will be associated with the winner as whoever wins the event will be winning it at the Werner Schlager academy.
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