Panagiotis_Gionis
Panagiotis Gionis
Greek table tennis player
Panagiotis Gionis (born 7 January 1980) is a Greek table tennis player and a dentist. He is a member in the Greece National Team[3] and has competed in 4 Olympics and many World and European Championships. He has been playing professionally in Germany and France since 2001. Currently, he is playing for Greek club Panathinaikos, German club Borussia Düsseldorf[4] and is being sponsored by TAMASU BUTTERFLY.[5]
In May 2011, he qualified directly for the London 2012 Summer Olympics based on his ITTF world ranking.[6] At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he lost in the third round to Japan's Seiya Kishikawa.
He placed 3rd in the men's single 2013 LIEBHERR European Championships and second in the team event. He is currently ranked 21st in the world and 7th in Europe.[2]
In Aug 2014 he was invited to participate in the mixed European team in the Asia-Europe All Star Challenge on 1–2 November 2014 in Zhang Jia Gang, China. He lost to Chuang Chih-yuan with 0:3.[7]
In April 2016, he secured his spot at the 2016 Summer Olympics by winning the group final match at the ITTF European Olympic Games Qualification Tournament in Halmstad, Sweden.[8] At the 2016 Summer Olympics, he defeated Padasak Tanviriyavechakul of Thailand in the second round. He was defeated by Jun Mizutani of Japan in the third round.[9]
Panagiotis Gionis qualified for the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships seeded at Number 29. In the first round and second round he faced and defeated North Korea's Choe Il (4–2) and Slovakia's Wang Yang (4–3) respectively. Gionis was ultimately defeated in the third round by Number 12 seed, Vladimir Samsonov, (0–4).
In 2021, he participated in the Tokyo Summer Olympics, ultimately losing to Jeong Youngsik in the 3rd round after beating Ahmed Saleh 4–1.[2]