Disappointing Wednesday for the men of the German Table Tennis Association: Veteran Dimitrij Ovtcharov as well as Patrick Franziska and Ruwen Filus failed in the third round of the individual match at the World Championships in Durban, South Africa.
Individual European champion Dang Qiu (Düsseldorf) is still fighting against Frenchman Felix Lebrun late on Wednesday evening for a place in the round of 16.
Ovtcharov from Neu-Ulm, bronze medalist at the London and Tokyo Olympics, lost 4-3 to Croatian Tomislav Pucar after a 2-1 lead.
Franziska had previously been hit, the 30-year-old from the Champions League winner 1. FC Saarbrücken had to admit defeat to the Portuguese Joao Geraldo, also 3: 4. Filus conceded a 0:4 against the world ranking eighth Lin Yun-Ju from Taiwan.
“I’m very disappointed because it was a great opportunity and I played far below my potential,” said Ovtcharov: “Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good performance, which of course is a shame at a World Championships where you want to play your best table tennis. Now I have to focus fully on the doubles tomorrow.”
In this, Ovtcharov (34) can still hope for a medal. Together with Franziska he is in the quarterfinals after the 3:2 against the Japanese Shunsuke Togami/Yukiya Uda.
Han and Mittelham confidently continue
In the women’s competition, Ying Han and Nina Mittelham each reached the round of the top 16 after 4-0 wins. Xiaona Shan, on the other hand, had no chance against Chen Meng from China, who was fourth in the world rankings 4-0.
16-year-old Annett Kaufmann and Sabine Winter also had to admit defeat in three sets in doubles in the round of 16 to the duo Cheng I-Ching/Li Yu-Jhun from Taiwan.