Only two weeks ago at the Europe Top 16 Cup, Germany made a compelling case for the individual dominance of its players. On September 19 in Thessaloniki, Greece, Germany's third-ranked players won the women's and men's singles championships. This week, they flexed their teamwork skills. The Gazprom 2021 European Team Championships concluded today in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. In the women's final, Germany faced the host nation of Romania. Germany did so without the talents of its top two players, Petrissa Solja and Han Ying. Germany's world #33 Nina Mittelham (pictured, left), fresh off winning the women's singles title at the Europe Top 16 Cup, led Germany to a 3-1 win over Romania with two wins. Mittelham set the tone for the finals in the first match. Trailing Bernadette Szocs 5-9 in the deciding fifth game, Mittelham strung together a 7-1 run to get Germany on the board first. "I did not expect I will play against Szocs at the beginning," confessed Mittleham. "She is very dangerous player and I personally find it difficult to play against her style of play... I cannot tell how I managed to win. I just kept on playing point after point." Later, with Germany up 2-1, Mittelham secured the championship with another five-game thriller, this time over Elizabeth Samara. "I played against her three months ago at the European Championship in Warsaw, in the quarterfinals, so I knew what I was going to expect," said Mittelham. "I prepared well and I’m happy that I managed to play very well, keep calm and won the match in the end." Meanwhile, over in the men's draw, Germany also managed to reach the finals without the services of its top two stars (Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Timo Boll). There, they faced an upstart Russian squad who had already exceeded expectations. Leading the German charge was world #15 Patrick Franziska, who, like his countrywoman Nina Mittelham, was also recently crowned continental champion at the Europe Top 16 Cup. Again following her example, Franziska anchored the German team with two clutch five-game wins, the last a 15-13 thriller over Maksim Grebnev, a 19-year-old ranked #540 in the world. "The Russian team played an amazing tournament," said Franziska. "Their players are so young and they have so much potential. We knew that we will have to play at our best today. Congratulations to Russia! Definitely the bright future lays ahead of them. Now we are very happy that we won." After claiming the continent's individual championships with its third-ranked players, it should perhaps be no surprise that Germany would emerge victorious in a contest of collective might.

More at ETTU