After another brilliant performance, the German table tennis men are reaching for a medal at the World Team Championships in London.
Thanks to the clear 3-0 win in the round of 16 against Hong Kong, national coach Jörg Roßkopf’s team only needs one more success to achieve their goal of reaching the podium.
In the fight for precious metal, the selection of the German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) around former European champion Dang Qiu (Düsseldorf), who had not given up a point in the 3-0 win against Slovenia at the start of the knockout phase, will face Japan in the round of the best eight. The German team won their first preliminary round game in London 3-2 against the fourth-placed team at the Olympics.
Duda convinced
In the team world rankings, the Asians are placed fourth, directly ahead of the DTTB team. In 2024, Germany was eliminated in the quarter-finals of both the previous team World Cup in Busan, South Korea, and the subsequent Olympic tournament in Paris and thus remained without a medal.
Roßkopf’s team emphatically underlined its medal ambitions against the Hong Kong Chinese, who continue to be independent in table tennis regardless of their political situation.
In the duel with the Asians, whose best player is still among the best 50 in the world rankings, the German top 20 trio with Qiu, the European Championship runner-up Benedikt Duda (Bergneustadt) and the former double European champion Patrick Franziska (Saarbrücken) confidently confirmed their position as favorites in less than two hours. Duda celebrated his fifth success in his seventh appearance on the Thames and currently has the best record in the DTTB jersey.
