After the third victory in the third preliminary round game, the German table tennis men have the World Cup round of 16 in sight.
Third game, third victory – and the round of 16 in sight: The German table tennis players are still on track at the World Team Championships in Busan/South Korea, even if not everything went as planned in the 3-2 win against Kazakhstan. Both Olympic bronze medalist Dimitrij Ovtcharov and European champion Dang Qiu lost to Kazakh top player Kirill Gerassimenko from Bundesliga club Werder Bremen. However, Ovtcharov, Qiu and Patrick Franziska scored the points for victory without losing a set.
“3-2 sounds close, but we never had the feeling that we could lose this game,” said national coach Jörg Roßkopf. In the final group game on Monday (9:00 a.m. CET) against England, the aim is to win the group and thus move directly into the round of 16. The second and third place teams also still have a chance of making it to the knockout round. Germany won the first games against the USA and Saudi Arabia 3-0.
Ovtcharov is still looking for fine-tuning
Ovtcharov (35), the most experienced player in the team after the short-term cancellation of record European champion Timo Boll, is still looking for fine-tuning. Before the outbound flight, his luggage, including his clubs, was stolen; in Busan he is still working on the handles of his spare blades. “You have it all in your head, and if you don’t hit two balls, you immediately get a bit of a headache and start playing even worse. So I quickly became very negative in my head against Kirill.”said Ovtcharov.