The final defeat of the German team against China dampened the mood a little. But Dang Qui, who was born in Nürtingen, was satisfied with the World Cup in his parents’ home country.
“Playing against China in the final in China is of course something really fantastic,” said table tennis ace Dang Qui after the team final at the Table Tennis World Championships in Chengdu, which he lost 3-0. “Of course you want to win every final, but the Chinese were simply better and we have to accept that.”
For Dang Qui the first tournament as a leader
For the number nine in the world it was the first tournament as German number one. Because the German table tennis superstars Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov were missing after lengthy injuries, it was also the first tournament as a leading player for the native of Nürtingen.
In this Germany had started as an outsider. But Dang Qiu , Benedikt Duda (number 36 in the world) and Kay Stumper (103) improved from game to game and still defeated South Korea in the semifinals after falling behind. “A lot of good memories remain,” said Dang Qiu.
In the final against the top favorites from China, however, the roles were clearly divided: Dang Qiu was the only German to win a set in a 0:3 (9:11, 6:11, 11:9, 1:11) against Olympic champion Ma Long. Duda (8:11, 8:11, 9:11 against China’s number one Fan Zhendong) and Stumper (7:11, 8:11, 4:11 against Wang Chuqin) had to admit defeat to zero.
“We didn’t sell ourselves short”
Dang Qiu still said, “We didn’t sell ourselves short.” Born in Karlsruhe, however, Stumper showed at his first major tournament how much potential he has. Accordingly, he was also in a party mood after the tournament.
“China is the ultimate in table tennis”
Dang Qiu made a big step at the World Championships in Chengdu. He was born in Nürtingen, went to school there and did his Abitur there. His father Qiu Jianxin was a Chinese national player and coached the TTC Frickenhausen (Esslingen district) at the time. His mother Chen Hong was also a national team player. The euphoria was correspondingly great to play the World Cup in his parents’ home country – where table tennis has a completely different status than in the rest of the world. “Because China is the ultimate in table tennis – even more than Germany ever was in football.”
Second place in the world championship is the next point on a long list of Dang Qiu’s successes: Baden-Württemberg state champion, German student champion, European Championship runner-up in the U21s, German individual champion, team champion with Borussia Düsseldorf, European team champion and European mixed champion – and even in the summer of 2022 the world title in singles.
Table tennis ace Timo Boll, Dang Qiu’s teammate at Borussia Düsseldorf, thinks highly of the 25-year-old: “Dang lives table tennis from morning to night. He watches every game, even if he doesn’t play a tournament or train himself. He is a hard worker, over the years has developed a good feel for what he has to play. He’s a table tennis madman, a table tennis maniac in a good way.” And this madman still has big goals: First and foremost the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
