Petrissa Solja

Petrissa Solja (born 11 March 1994) is a German table tennis player.[4] Solja won silver in the team event in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She reached her highest world ranking of thirteenth in March 2016.[2]

Petrissa Solja
Personal information
NationalityGerman
Born (1994-03-11) 11 March 1994
Kandel, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany[1]
Playing styleleft shakehand grip
Highest ranking13th (March 2016)[2]
Club
  • TTC Berlin Eastside (2014–2017)
  • TSV Langstadt (2018–)
[3]
Height1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)[4]
Weight67 kg (148 lb)

Personal life

Solja was born in Kandel, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany,[1] into a table tennis-playing family; her mother, Dagmar Solja-Andruszko, played table tennis for ATSV Saarbrücken.[5] Petrissa's two older sisters also play table tennis;[6] her sister Amelie competed for Austria in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London[7] (qualifying for Austrian citizenship due to the Solja sisters' grandmother being from Austria[5]).

Before the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Solja posed together with swimmer Isabelle Härle, rower Julia Lier, cyclist Nadja Pries and injured pole vaulter Katharina Bauer for the German edition of Playboy.[8]

Table tennis career

Solja is coached by her father, Pavel,[4] and plays left-handed with a shakehand grip.[4]

As a junior player, Solja had considerable success. She won the Cadet singles events at the 2008 and 2009 European Youth Championships, beating Bernadette Szőcs and Yana Noskova in the two finals, respectively. Although she lost twice in the Junior singles finals to Bernadette Szőcs in 2011 and 2012, she was the most successful European player at the World Junior Championships in 2012, reaching the semi-finals of the girls' singles, and overall winning three bronze medals.

Solja was German young player of the year in 2012.[9]

With Sabine Winter, she won the German national doubles championship in 2013 and 2014.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Solja won a silver medal in the women's team competition after being beaten, alongside partner Han Ying, by the Chinese team by 0 to 3.[10] This result was the best by a European team in the women's team competition at the Olympics,[11] and exceeded expectations given the team's third seed position.[11] Solja lost in the third round of the women's singles to Ri Myong-sun of North Korea.[12][11]

In 2017, Solja, alongside partner Fang Bo, won bronze in the mixed doubles at the World Championships in Düsseldorf, Germany.[13] This was the first World Championship medal in mixed doubles for Germany since 1971.[13] Later in 2017, Solja competed in the inaugural Ultimate Table Tennis League in India.[14]

Solja played for German club TTC Berlin Eastside from 2014,[3] before taking a break from table tennis at the end of 2017,[15] and signing for TSV Langstadt in 2018.[3]

In 2019, Solja came back from 3 games down to win gold in the ITTF-Europe Top 16 against Bernadette Szocs.

References
  1. "Tischtennis: TSV Langstadt verpflichtet Solja". op-online.de (in German). 9 April 2018. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  2. "Player profile | SOLJA Petrissa". International Table Tennis Federation. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  3. "Transfercoup: Petrissa Solja wechselt zu Aufsteiger Langstadt". my Tischtennis.de. 8 April 2018. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  4. "Spielerportrait Petrissa Solja". JOOLA Tischtennis (in German). Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  5. "Solja gegen Solja: Tischtennis: Deutschland verliert Schwestern-Duell bei WM". Schleswig-Holsteinischer Zeitungsverlag (in German). 2 May 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  6. Wenck, Dietmar (4 September 2014). "Top-Talent Petrissa Solja will den Durchbruch in Berlin". Berliner Morgenpost (in German). Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  7. Daish, Simon (5 August 2016). "Olympic debut for Petrissa Solja". International Table Tennis Federation. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  8. "Diese deutschen Olympia-Stars ziehen sich für den "Playboy" aus". Stern (in German). 10 August 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  9. "Tischtennis: Boll und Ivancan "Tischtennisspieler des Jahres"". Die Welt (in German). 6 January 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  10. Goh, Brenda (16 October 2016). "Table tennis – China women thrash Germany to claim gold". Reuters. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  11. "Petrissa Solja reflects on Rio 2016 campaign – International Table Tennis Federation". International Table Tennis Federation. 25 August 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  12. "Table Tennis: Women's Singles". BBC Sport. 8 August 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  13. Schall, Tobias (4 June 2017). "Tischtennis-WM: Frust nach Bronze: Solja und der China-Kracher". Stuttgarter Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  14. Dias, Shayne (29 June 2017). "Petrissa Solja ready to learn and teach in the Ultimate Table Tennis League". Hindustani Times. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  15. "Petrissa Solja – eine bärenstarke Frau". SWR Sport (in German). 17 October 2018. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
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