Through Novi Sad, Serbia flows the Danube, the selfsame river which, upstream in Austria, inspired Johann Strauss' 1866 famous waltz, "An der schönen, blauen Donau" (On the Beautiful Blue Danube). Now, over a century and a half later, the river is once again attracting talent to its shores. Today in Novi Sad, the draw was set for the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) Women's Europe Cup. Second only to the European Champions League in terms of continental cachet, the Cup represents a return to action after a year lost to the COVID-19 pandemic. The group stage starts tomorrow, with four round-robins feeding into an eight-team weekend playoff. There will be a new Cup champion this Sunday. Spain's UCAM Cartagena, in 2019 the last team to win the title, is not among the 11 qualifying teams. Last year, four teams had made the semis before the pandemic scuppered proceedings. Of the four potential champions last year, only one is back for another shot at the Cup: Austria’s TTC CarinthiaWinds Villach. The top-seeded team this year is France's CP Lyssois Lille Métropole, one of three French squads in the draw. Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Spain and the host nation of Serbia will also be represented. Due to the ongoing pandemic, fans will not be in attendance. Playing for the host TTC Novi Sad, the world #216 Tijana Jokić expressed both excitement for what is to come, and regret for what could not be. "Europe Cup is a huge challenge for us and I am happy we will have a such big event in Novi Sad," said Jokić. "I am also sorry we will not be able to have our fans at the tribunes, nevertheless I cannot wait for the moment to play at European competition." As the choral version of Strauss' fluvial waltz invites, "D'rum laßt uns einig sein,... froh auch in trüber Zeit" (Therefore let us be united,... happy even in troubled times). For table tennis-starved Europe, to enjoy the resumption of play amid such troubled times, their Cup truly runneth over.

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