In the top game of the domestic table tennis league, defending champion SPG Felbermayr Wels presented himself sovereign and masterly against Wiener Neustadt. Andreas Levenko and his team deservedly won the new edition of last year’s final after almost three and a half hours and thus also secured the autumn championship title – the cheers among the Wels fans were great.
In the last game of the first half of the season, the Austrian team player Andreas Levenko presented himself in top form. He first defeated Felix Wetzel, who was born in Germany, in the decisive fifth set 6:3 and then also defeated the Japanese Kenji Matsudaira 3:0 in the top game. “A firework”, said the president of the Welser, Bernhard Humer, delighted. While the Wels team were clearly beaten 3-0 in the doubles game, the Czech Jiri Martinko, playing for Wels, scored the decisive fourth point and thus made the autumn championship title perfect for Felbermayr Wels. “In the end it was the greater will that made the difference,” says Humer.
But the father of success is Andreas Levenko, who has been living in Italy since the summer and is getting stronger and stronger through training at Lake Garda. Unlucky at Wiener Neustadt, on the other hand, was Felix Wetzel, who only lost in both singles in the tie-break.
But there isn’t much time for the Welser to catch their breath, as they will be playing with the second team at home against Stockerau in the quarter-finals of the cup next Sunday. Wels thus has a second chance to make it into the Cup Final Four on the first weekend in January 2023.
Three catfish in the front
In the table, the Welser are at the top with 20 points with their home win in the 1st Table Tennis League, followed by Wiener Neustadt with 16 points in second place and can look forward to the winter crown. It is just as pleasing to look at the players: three Wels pros are leading in the individual rankings – Andreas Levenko ahead of Nandor Exseki and Jiri Martinko. The 24-year-old Levenko has been with the team from Wels for two years and things have been going uphill ever since: he was already number one in the U21 world rankings, and his career goal is “to be the absolute best in the world”, as he says himself. He already plays in the Austrian national team and his best place in the world rankings was 99th.
Source: Nachrichten
