Table tennis: Annett Kaufmann becomes vice-European champion in Ljubljana

The German table tennis hope Annett Kaufmann lost the women's singles final at the European Championships in Slovenia and thus secured the silver medal. In Ljubljana, the 20-year-old junior world champion lost in 3:4 sets to Elizabeth Abrahamian from Russia.

»It was a difficult game. In the end she simply played the better balls and deserved to win," said Kaufmann, who found confident words: "I know it was a good success. But - to put it exaggeratedly - I'm not used to losing in the final. With a little distance, however, she can look at the tournament in a "positive" way. Kaufmann is, among other things, U19 world champion in 2024 and team European champion in 2025.

Only three German players won the European singles title: Agnes Simon (1962), Nicole Struse (1996) and Petrissa Solja (2021). On the way to this final, Kaufmann defeated her German national team colleagues Nina Mittelham (semi-finals) and Ying Han (quarter-finals).

The great hope in German table tennis continued her rapid rise in the capital of Slovenia despite the defeat in the final. In 2024 she first attracted attention as a short-term substitute at the Olympic Games in Paris, and in the same year she won the title at the Junior World Championships. The victory in Ljubljana would have been their biggest coup to date, with further highlights to follow soon. In the doubles she won bronze alongside Mittelham.

Her opponent in the final was allowed to take part in this European Championship because the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in international championships no longer applies since July. Lacking points in the European rankings, Abrahamian had to start the competition in qualifying. The 23-year-old Russian had previously won, among other things, the U19 European Championships and, this year, an international WTT tournament in Tunis.