European table tennis champion Dang Qiu clearly lost the round of 16 top game at the World Cup in South Africa against world champion and world number one Fan Zhandong. This means that the last German player has also been eliminated in the singles.
The 26-year-old from Borussia Düsseldorf was beaten by number one from China in the round of 16 in 0:4 sets on Thursday (May 25th, 2023). With Dang, the last of five German players in the individual competition at the World Cup in Durban was also eliminated.
Dang Qiu: “His precision hurt me a lot”
“I didn’t necessarily let one or two chances lie. But he plays with incredible precision, calm and overview,” said Dang Qiu after the defeat. “On the Internet you can only see how quickly he gets things done. But that’s not the important thing. His precision hurt me a lot today.”
The German-born son of a former Chinese international was satisfied with his performance in Durban. “I fulfilled my target and reached the round of 16 as the world No. 10,” said Dang Qiu. “There are two or three players in the tableau against whom I’m still behind. One of them is Fan Zhendong. I have a really good chance against everyone else on a good day.”
On a par with Fan Zhendong in the first set
The first duel between Dang Qiu and Fan Zhendong was not as one-sided as the end result suggests for a long time. The German champion only lost the first set in extra time with 10:12. After an 8:6 lead, he gave up the third round with 8:11. The last set was then clearly lost at 5:11.
Dang Qiu has only been a world leader since last year. He won the European Championship title in Munich, rose to become the top 10 player in the world rankings and led a weakened German team to the final of the World Team Championship. His childhood idol Wang Hao sat in the coaching box on Thursday as Fan Zhendong’s coach. The 39-year-old became world champion in 2009.
Ovtcharov only in doubles medal hope
The German table tennis star Dimitrij Ovtcharov was eliminated early on. As in 2019 in Budapest, the Olympic bronze medalist from TTC Neu-Ulm failed on Wednesday evening against Croatian Tomislav Pucar.
Ovtcharov still has a chance of winning a medal in doubles alongside Patrick Franziska in Durban.