The German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) remains at the World Cup in Qatar without a medal. This has not happened for more than 20 years.
When the historically weak performance of the German table tennis players in Doha was sealed, the emotions broke through. “I haven’t crushed a tear for a long time,” said Patrick Franziska after his round of 16 drama without a happy ending.
As much as the 32-year-old fought-Franziska was also unable to avert the World Cup in the desert for the DTTB. “Above all, victory or defeat is rated from the outside, and we and I have to be measured by that,” said men-national coach Jörg Roßkopf after the last out of his quintet in the tournament.
Roßkopf sees “exclusively bitter defeats”
Without “pensioners” Timo Boll and the background veteran Dimitrij Ovtcharov, there was nothing to get in Qatar, the wafer-thin 3: 4 defeat of Franziska against the Taiwanese Yun-Ju Lin stood symbolically for the German appearances. Even if Roßkopf correctly spoke of only “bitter defeats” – the bottom line is that no DTTB player is there when it comes to the medals.
A World Cup quarter-finals without German men’s participation had last existed 22 years ago. The fact that Sabine Winter and Yuan Wan on Friday (May 23, 2025) also went out the last German women’s double in the round of the last eight. “It is a shame. If you are about to be just before the medal, you naturally start dreaming and you want to have them, because you don’t have the chance every day,” said Winter after the 1-3 against the experienced Vice-European Champion Sofia Polcanova (Austria) and Bernadette Szöcs (Romania).
End of a proud series
This ended a proud series for the association: Before Doha, DTTB active people were able to win a medal one after the other at four individual world championships. This was not granted this to the German team.
With the violation of Ovtcharov, which had to cancel his individual start due to herniated disc problems, it was necessary to cope with a setback right from the start. When DTTB hopeful Annett Kaufmann – but after a strong appearance against number three in the world – had to cut the sail after her second single, the disaster took its course before Franziska caught it as the last German individual starter.
“Our boys were in a good mood, but they lost to strong players. We just have to close one or the other game,” said Roßkopf. Franziska’s “very bitter defeat”, in addition to Roßkopfs 56th birthday, was in fact the right end of a tournament completely inappropriate for the DTTB.