From May 20th, the table tennis world elite will gather in Durban, South Africa, for the first world championship on the African continent. But one of the top stars is missing: Timo Boll.
The record European champion has been struggling with massive shoulder problems since the beginning of the year and has not played a match for two and a half months. His World Cup cancellation – inevitable. It could be a cancellation, the consequences of which extend to the Olympics in Paris.
Haven’t picked up a bat since the end of February
It was a sight that told a lot about how Timo Boll was doing for many weeks: the final of the Table Tennis Champions League at the beginning of April. Instead of supporting his team Borussia Düsseldorf in the fight for Europe’s club crown on the plate, the 42-year-old just sits on the bench and is doomed to inaction. After successful rallies from his teammates, he can’t even clap properly because his left shoulder hurts too much.
An inflammation that has been following Timo Boll for a long time. “The problem was already there in 2022, and it got bigger and bigger at the beginning of the year. Timo tormented himself from game to game“, explains national coach Jörg Roßkopf, who has been a very close confidant of the former world number one for many years.
Boll’s last competitive match was at the end of February. Since then he hasn’t picked up a racquet at all. “When Timo moves his batting arm to the right, it hurts immediately. Why, that’s all a mystery. At least the last MRI scan didn’t show any inflammation. That gives us hope” says Rosskopf.
No World Cup without training
Accordingly, participation in the World Cup, which begins on May 20th, is not an option at all, as Boll himself announced today (May 9th, 2023). “A Worlds is too big an event to compete in with virtually no training or preparation, nor would it be fair to my colleagues who deserve to be there and I wish them the best of luck and success.” Instead of Boll, defense specialist Ruwen Filus will get the last starting place at the year’s highlight in Durban. Individual European champions Dang Qiu, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Patrick Franziska and Benedikt Duda were nominated before.
It is only the second time that Timo Boll will miss an individual world championship since his world championship debut in 1997. The German record champion has special memories of the last one. November 2021 in Houston, Texas. Here, too, Timo Boll’s own body is giving him a hard time. He struggles through the tournament with a pulled stomach muscle. From a playing point of view, however, his form is perfect. Despite the pain, the German reaches the World Cup semifinals and wins the bronze medal. One of the highlights in Boll’s career was so rich in successes.
Problem: Decaying World Ranking Points
This medal and the associated world ranking points ensure that Timo Boll is still ranked 18th in the current world rankings. But after the World Cup, these 700 points expire. The Odenwald should therefore fall back in the ranking to a place between 35 and 40. He hasn’t been that far down in more than 20 years.
This causes problems because the German also loses his automatic starting eligibility for the really big tournaments, so he sometimes has to hope for wildcards in order to be there. “We expect that Timo will fall even further behind in the summer because of the points that will be lost“, the national coach has already calculated it all.
Accordingly, Boll may even have to take a detour via qualification to secure participation in the main draw. “This could be a difficult time for Timo. He doesn’t even know the players he would be dealing with from direct duels. But he has to go through with it. This can certainly be a new incentive“, Jörg Roßkopf looks ahead.
The national coach can put himself in the shoes of his top player. In his career, he was out for a whole year due to a shoulder injury. And still came back strong afterwards.
Comeback planned at the European Games
Timo Boll wants that too. If the shoulder of his batting arm allows it, the 42-year-old is set to make his comeback at the European Games in Kraków on June 21. But the long-term point of reference is Paris 2024.”It was always clear that at my age I had to set priorities. And my goal is the Olympic Games. I want to be in top form there and attack as best I can“, the left-hander is already looking ahead to his future. It would be Timo Boll’s seventh Olympic participation.
First of all, the shoulder has to heal completely. Various forms of therapy have been tried and after a long wait one seems to be working. “His condition has improved significantly over the past three to four days. We hope that the injury will soon be over“Roßkopf tries to be optimistic.
As far as the veteran’s participation in the Olympics in 2024 is concerned, anyway. “If you don’t let Timo Boll open the door, then who will?” However, due to a new rule by the world association, only the two top-ranked players in each country may start in the individual competition in Paris. And after the long break from competition, Boll is further away from that than ever before in his long career.