Thanks to veteran Timo Boll, Germany’s table tennis men avoided an impending exit at the European Team Championships in Malmö. Boll won both singles in the narrow 3:2 after being 1:2 behind in the quarterfinals against Croatia, and Benedikt Duda took the third point in a real crime thriller.
This means that the DTTB men, who competed as defending champions, as well as the women, have already secured a medal.
Duda wins decisive match
Boll initially gave Germany the lead with a 3-1 win against Tomislav Pucar before Duda and Ricardo Walther lost. The 42-year-old Boll equalized 3-0 against Andrej Gacina, and in the all-important game Duda won against Pucar 3-2. The semi-finals will be against either Denmark or Portugal.
The women had previously celebrated a confident 3-0 win against Italy without losing a set. In the fight for their ninth European Championship title, national coach Tamara Boros’ team will face hosts Sweden or Portugal on Saturday and can further refine their 18th European Championship medal. The European Games winners Romania and France will determine the second finalist.
Germany’s women confident
The German women reached the semi-finals of a European team championship for the 18th time. The eight-time European champions demonstrated their class against Italy.
Tenth in the world rankings Ying Han gave the German team the lead against Italy in Malmö. The 40-year-old from Polish club KTS Tarnobrzeg had missed the previous day’s equally clear 3-0 win against Ukraine due to muscular problems. Nina Mittelham and Xiaona Shan (both TTC Berlin Eastside) scored the other two points.
Ying Han reached the European Championship semi-finals with the German team.
Will Germany win the title again?
Defending champions Germany and Romania are the two big favorites for this tournament. The German team won the 2021 European Championship final. The Romanians prevailed at the final of the European Games in Krakow in July. Only the new team European champions will qualify directly for the team competition at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.