The world premiere of the WTT feeder tournaments in Düsseldorf ended with two successes for the German table tennis aces.
At the third and final edition of the new competition in the halls of the German Table Tennis Center in Düsseldorf, team Olympic silver medalist Patrick Franziska secured the title in singles and European team champion Chantal Mantz together with her national team colleague Yuan Wan in women’s doubles. Tobias Hippler/Kilian Ort won bronze in the men’s doubles.
In the final, Franziska easily defeated former European Championship runner-up Ovidiu Ionescu (Romania) 4-0. The top 20 player successfully took revenge for his defeat against the Bundesliga professionals from Post SV Mühlhausen at Saarbrücken 3:2 in the cup semifinals.
The title for the former World Championship third in mixed was the third medal in men’s singles for the German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) at the third feeder of the new tournament promoter WTT. In the first two editions, the German champion Benedikt Duda won the premiere gold in the absence of the injured DTTB stars Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov and in the second round – stopped by a false positive corona test – bronze.
First international tournament since the start of the pandemic
The feeders in Düsseldorf were the first international tournaments in Germany since the German Open in Magdeburg in early 2020 and the subsequent outbreak of the corona pandemic.
The format forms the lowest level of the new tournament pyramid below the top events known as Grand Smashes, the Champions tournaments, the Star Contenders and the Contender series, which are basically designed as a springboard for younger or longer-injured players to the next level.
The alignment of the first three feeders in Timo Boll’s “living room” by the DTTB, supported by the host Boll-Klub Borussia Düsseldorf, also meant a sports-political signal.
Through the joint organization of the three tournaments in the NRW metropolis, WTT on the one hand and the DTTB on the other tried to get closer after almost two years of differences. A deepening of the contacts is still being discussed.
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