National table tennis player Patrick Franziska caused a surprise at the premiere of the WTT Champion in Budapest, which was endowed with 500,000 dollars.
The world number 14. won in the round of 16 for the first time in his career against Olympic champion Ma Long from China. Timo Boll, on the other hand, missed the quarterfinals.
Franziska prevailed in an exciting duel with 3:2 (11:7, 7:11, 11:6, 4:11, 12:10). Previously, he had never won a set in two comparisons with the three-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist in 2016 and 2020. “It’s definitely the biggest win of my career. I’m still shaking all over and I have to get over it first,” said the 30-year-old, who will play against his Saarbrücken club colleague Darko Jorgic (Slovenia) on Thursday for a place in the semi-finals .
Record European champion Boll (41), on the other hand, lost to the Chinese Lin Gaoyuan 0:3 (8:11, 6:11, 3:11). “Except maybe in the first sentence, that was a pretty clear story. All in all, I was just physically too slow and too inflexible,” said Boll.