Timo Boll and Co. have to save the balance sheet at the European Table Tennis Championships in Munich after disappointing doubles tournaments in the individual competitions for the hosts who are still without a medal.
Defending champion and record winner Boll landed a resounding victory at the start and is thus still at the top of at least eight active players in the German Table Tennis Association (DTTB), who have their sights set on the round of 16 after successfully entering the singles.
In the doubles, the German champions Benedikt Duda/Dang Qiu and last year’s finalists Nina Mittelham/Sabine Winter gambled away their hoped-for podium places due to defeats in the quarter-finals. As a result, for the first time since 2011, the DTTB remained in Gdansk at an EM without precious metal in the doubles competitions.
Boll, who was struggling with the long-term effects of his broken rib in early summer until a few days before the start of the European Championship, then avoided a “black Wednesday” for the European Championship organizers with a show of strength.
In the 4:3 against Samuel Kulczycki from Poland, who is ranked 152 in the world, the third place in the World Championships was only two points away from the early end with an intermediate score of 1:3 sets before he got going and showed his class. “It was really hard work. A little less effort would have been fine with me, but games like this are important for getting into the tournament,” Boll commented on his hard work.
Earlier on Wednesday evening, his national team colleagues Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Patrick Franziska were among the top 32. Qius and Duda’s opening matches will not take place until late Wednesday evening. In the women’s game, only youngsters Annett Kaufmann and Franziska Schreiner have been eliminated from the seven German players.
The weak doubles record, which also includes the knockout round for the two German mixed teams on the first weekend of the multi-event on the Isar, caused the DTTB camp one year after the EM record record in Warsaw with four gold and three Silver Medals for Long Faces. “Of course you’re disappointed if you’re not one of the medal winners in these competitions. For us, that’s a sign that everything is moving even closer together in Europe. We have to do it and do better for the future,” summarized DTTB sports director Richard Prause.