First the men won, then the women too: both German teams reached the quarter-finals of the European Team Table Tennis Championships.
Timo Boll (Borussia Düsseldorf), Benedikt Duda (TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt) and Ricardo Walther (ASV Grünwettersbach) won 3-0 against Ukraine in the first knockout round game. On Friday (September 15th, 2023) it will be against Croatia for a place in the semi-finals.
“We played a good game”said record European champion Boll. But Croatia is now “Definitely the toughest opponent we’ve had so far. We all have to play to the limit. I rate the Croatians very highly and have a lot of respect for them.”
The winner goes to the Olympics
The Germans won that team-European Championship three times in a row. However, in Malmö they will be playing without the three top players Dang Qiu, Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Patrick Franziska. The winner of the tournament will qualify for the team competition at the 2024 Olympic Games.
As quarter-finalists, the German men already have a place at the teamWorld Cup in South Korea next February. Germany’s women will also be represented there.
Germany’s women are also in the quarterfinals
They won their round of 16 without their current best player Han Ying. The tenth in the world rankings from the Polish club KTS Tarnobrzeg was rested due to minor muscular problems. Xiaona Shan, Nina Mittelham (both TTC Berlin Eastside) and Sabine Winter (TSV Dachau) scored the points in the 3-0 win against Ukraine.