Timo Boll, Patrick Franziska and European team champion Nina Mittelham have reached the second round of the first Grand Smash table tennis tournament.
Record European champion Boll from Borussia Düsseldorf, who celebrated his 41st birthday on Tuesday, beat Brazilian Gustavo 3-2 (11-6, 10-12, 11-3, 5-11, 11-6) in Singapore Tsuboi through.
The world number 16. Franziska (1. FC Saarbrücken) easily defeated the Austrian Daniel Habesohn from Bundesliga club Post SV Mühlhausen in 3-0 sets. Mittelham (TTC Berlin Eastside) won 3-1 against Mariam Alhodaby from Egypt. Germany international Dang Qiu (Borussia Düsseldorf) also put in a strong performance in his 3-0 win over Egyptian Omar Assar.
Only two weeks after the greatest individual success of her career, Europe’s Top 16 winner Han Ying (KTS Tarnobrzeg) paid the price for her bad luck and lost in Singapore to Olympic bronze medalist Mima Ito from Japan (1:3). Ruwen Filus (TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell) and qualifier Ricardo Walther (ASV Grünwettersbach) were also eliminated in the first main round on Saturday.
The Grand Smash tournaments in table tennis follow the model of the four Grand Slams in tennis. The premiere of this new format will take place in Singapore until March 20th. It is endowed with the table tennis record sum of two million dollars in prize money.