Por CBTM
Slovenia's Uros SLATINSEK has a problem, a veritable dilemma. On Wednesday 18th January 2006 he played in the qualification stage of the Men's Singles event at the Liebherr Slovenian Open, he won his one and only match on the first day of competition beating the Czech Republic's Jaromir ZLAMAL in straight games 11-3, 11-8, 11-9, 11-7. A very impressive win and furthermore he appeared to be very much at home in the Red Hall arena, comfortable and confident; so he should be, he comes from Velenje!
So, what's the problem?
Well, Uros SLATINSEK, or perhaps I should refer to him as Mr SLATINSEK is a Professor of Sport at the local college in Velenje and some of the students, knowing that Mr SLANTISEK is a table tennis player of some repute, decided they should support their mentor. Therefore, they each acquired a white round necked shirt and each had a letter written clearly in black ink on the front of the shirt; one had a letter `U' another a letter `R', the next `O' and so on, so when they stood in line the name UROS could be seen very clearly.
Nothing wrong with that, very good, thoughtful young men; they had come to support their teacher; so what's the problem? They should have been at lessons in the college!
Mr SLATINSEK has a problem. On Monday morning how does he reprimand a group of boys who cheered him to victory?
Reflexes
Uros SLATINSEK is a very capable sportsman. He started playing table tennis when he was ten years old, his father hailed from Yugoslavia and was very good at the sport of handball; he was the goalkeeper. Now, having watched handball only once in my life, I think being the goalkeeper must be the most impossible position to have in any sport. Have you ever seen a penalty taken in handball? At football the goalkeeper has a chance to save a penalty in handball he has no chance! The player taking the penalty stands about one metre in front of the goalkeeper and casts the ball with venom into the back of the net. I wonder if a penalty in handball has ever been saved. Perhaps I exaggerate?
"It's good for the reflexes", smiled Uros SLATISEK. Now, there's an idea, to improve the reflexes of table tennis players make them all play handball and put them in goal for the penalty shoot out!
Tempo
However, handball was not going to be the career for Uros SLATINSEK. He chose table tennis and played at the Tempo Velenje club. "Four years ago I left the club and went abroad in an effort to improve my standard of play", explained Uros SLATINSEK. "Now I play at Plüderhausen in Germany." SV Plüderhausen compete in Bundesliga North, that's the second division in layman's terms and this season they are hitherto unbeaten. They are set for promotion to the top flight and when you look at the names of the players in their team you soon understand why they are the favourites for promotion. Aleksandar KARAKASEVIC, LIN Ju, Martin BRATANOV, Ilija LUPULESKU are the leading four players with Uros SLATINSEK occupying the number five spot.
Practising with such high quality players must help SLATINSEK improve and being able to train against Aleksandar KARAKASEVIC explains why he was so dominant in his match against Jaromir ZLAMAL, both are left handers and KARAKASEVIC is a player with a very high level of skill. A left hander poses Uros SLATINSEK few headaches, watch out Timo BOLL!
Internationals
SLATINSEK has international experience, his first appearance in a major international tournament was in 1997 at the European Youth Championships, whilst at senior level he competed in the World Championships in 2001 in Bremen and in 2003 in Paris, the latter after recovering from a back injury that forced him to miss the European Championships when staged in Courmayeur.
Nicknamed `Tarzan', he graduated from university in September 2005 and was immediately offered work. "In Slovenia after you've graduated it can be very difficult to find work", explained SLATINSEK. "Amazingly, after two days I received a phone call and was offered the job of teaching sports at the Electro Engineering College in Velenje." Tarzan accepted immediately, he clearly enjoys his work and is obviously popular with the students.
"They heard I was playing", said SLATINSEK. "They came and supported, they were unbelievable!" Sounds to me that on Monday morning the absence from college might just be overlooked!
Idol
So, the first day of play was a success for Uros SLATINSEK and he's looking forward to the rest of the tournament and to watching one player in particular. "I've always wanted to play like Jean-Michel SAIVE", he said. "Safe with backhand and win the point with the forehand; SAIVE is so good to watch, my dream would be to be as good as him but that's not going to happen." The Belgian star is currently ranked number seven in the world and in Velenje he's the number three seed, he may not have the world's strongest backhand but the spin him imparts on the ball from the backhand causes adversaries immense problems.
SAIVE will delight the crowds but on Wednesday 18th January it was Uros SLATINSEK, a player with a good range of services and a powerful forehand who delighted the crowd, especially a group of young men who came to watch their teacher and left well pleased with the outcome.
There may be the odd detention or reprimand in the offing on Monday for missing college but I doubt it. It was much better to come and watch the table tennis and Mr SLATINSEK did them proud!
Source: www.ittf.com
