The ETTU Champions League Women's second stage starts on Tuesday evening, with the defending champions, KTS Enea Siarkopol Tarnobrzeg, at home to Etival and Berlin Eastside hosting Metz on Wednesday in the pick of the opening round.

Unlike the men's competition, which goes straight into knockout ties, the women's Stage 2 is a single group of eight. Each club plays the other seven once, over seven rounds that run from 10 November to the middle of January.

How the group works

The top two go straight to the Final Four, which is scheduled for 1-2 May 2027 and which the ETTU calendar places in Metz. The clubs finishing third to sixth go into a Stage 3 play-off round: third plays sixth and fourth plays fifth, each in a single match hosted by the higher-ranked club, and the two winners take the last Final Four places. The seventh and eighth-placed clubs are eliminated.

Tarnobrzeg are the top seeds, followed by Metz TT, TTC Berlin Eastside, Etival ASRTT, UCAM Cartagena and Saint-Quentin TT. The other two places went to Linz AG Froschberg of Austria and SKST Plus Hodonín of the Czech Republic, who both won all three of their ties in Stage 1 in Budaörs in August.

Berlin v Metz

Wednesday's meeting in Berlin brings together two players who met at WTT Champions Frankfurt last week. Poland's Natalia Bajor, registered with Berlin, and Egypt's Hana Goda, registered with Metz, played the longest women's match of the third day in Frankfurt: Goda, 18 and the world No 23, won 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 11-7 in just over 40 minutes and went on to reach the quarter-finals.

Berlin's squad also includes Nina Mittelham, the world No 28, who returned in Frankfurt after missing WTT Champions Montpellier with back problems and reached the last 16. Metz can call on the French international Charlotte Lutz and Luxembourg's Sarah De Nutte.

The holders

Tarnobrzeg's registered squad is led by Han Ying, the 43-year-old German defender ranked 16th in the world, who knocked out the third seed, Wang Yidi, in straight games in Frankfurt. Portugal's Fu Yu and China's He Zhuojia, the world No 48, are also in their squad. Etival's squad includes Australia's Yangzi Liu, who lost to Bajor in a 16-14 fourth game in Frankfurt's first round, and Sweden's Christina Källberg.

Home nations interest

Cartagena, who play in Hodonín in Tuesday's first match, have two players from the home nations in their squad: Wales's Anna Hursey, the world No 40, and England's Tin-Tin Ho, alongside Spain's Maria Xiao. Saint-Quentin, who host Linz, have Sweden's Linda Bergström.

Fixtures

Times are local (UK time in brackets) and may change.

  • Tuesday 10 November, 6pm (5pm UK): SKST Plus Hodonín v UCAM Cartagena
  • Tuesday 10 November, 6.30pm (5.30pm UK): KTS Enea Siarkopol Tarnobrzeg v Etival ASRTT
  • Tuesday 10 November, 7.30pm (6.30pm UK): Saint-Quentin TT v Linz AG Froschberg
  • Wednesday 11 November, 6pm (5pm UK): TTC Berlin Eastside v Metz TT
  • Saturday 14 November, 7pm (6pm UK): UCAM Cartagena v KTS Enea Siarkopol Tarnobrzeg
  • Saturday 14 November, 7pm (6pm UK): Etival ASRTT v SKST Plus Hodonín
  • Saturday 14 November, 7.30pm (6.30pm UK): Metz TT v Saint-Quentin TT
  • Sunday 15 November, 4pm (3pm UK): Linz AG Froschberg v TTC Berlin Eastside

Round 3 follows on 15 and 16 December and Round 4 on 19 and 20 December. The table and results are on Eleven's Champions League page.