Panathinaikos win Europe Trophy final, sweep CTT Olot 3-0 in Niš

Panathinaikos A.C. returned to the top of the Men’s Europe Trophy Grand Final by sweeping CTT Olot 3-0 in Niš, Serbia, but the scoreline hid a final built on pressure points and nerve. Tamas Lakatos had to survive a five-game opener against Rafael de las Heras, Taehyun Kim then extended the lead with a 3-1 win over Miguel Pantoja, and Konstantinos Konstantinopoulos closed it out with another five-game fight against Damien Provost.

The final felt closer than the 3-0 margin suggested because every match swung through tense phases before Panathinaikos found the answers. Konstantinopoulos said the Spanish side had “three very strong players” and praised the way Panathinaikos found “solutions under pressure.” He also said the club was becoming “a traditional force in European table tennis,” and added that this was his second European trophy with Panathinaikos.

That championship run was backed up by the way Panathinaikos handled the bracket. In the semifinal, the Greek club beat UKS Piast Poprawa Ostrzeszów 3-1, with Kim setting the tone and Lakatos adding a crucial second point. CTT Olot reached the title match by defeating TTC Radnički Beočin 1972 3-1 in the other semifinal, after Rafael de las Heras gave the Spanish side the edge and Damien Provost finished the job once Marko Petkov had briefly pulled the Serbian club level. UKS Piast Poprawa Ostrzeszów later took third place with a 3-0 win over TTC Radnički Beočin 1972.

The setting mattered almost as much as the scoreline. ETTU lists the Europe Trophy as the third level of European club competition, behind the Champions League and Europe Cup, and the event first took place in the 2021-2022 season. The 2025/26 Grand Finals in Niš ran from April 24 to 26, 2026, at Hala Čair and brought together Panathinaikos, STK Zagreb, CTT Olot, ASD Tennistavolo Sassari, Sanberg-Evopipes, UKS Piast Poprawa Ostrzeszów, MITTC Butterfly Malta, STK Pula and TTC Radnički Beočin 1972.

For Panathinaikos, this was more than a one-off run. The club had already won the trophy in Beočin, Serbia, in June 2024, and the repeat success in Niš showed a side that can keep pace with Europe’s strongest depth teams, not just survive a single weekend. In a competition built on composure, variety and the ability to win the last few points, Panathinaikos looked like a club that knows exactly how to finish.