The German men’s table tennis national team suffered a surprising defeat at the Team World Championships in China. Dang Qiu, Benedikt Duda and Ricardo Walther lost their second group game against India 1:3.
The world number 37. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran beat the two German top players Duda and Dang for the Indian team in 3:2 sets. Dang Qiu scored the only point for the European champions, who played without Timo Boll, Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Patrick Franziska, against Harmeet Desai.
The German women, on the other hand, are on course for the round of 16 in Chengdu. Ying Han (KTS Tarnobrzeg), Nina Mittelham and Shan Xiaona (both TTC Berlin Eastside) defeated Egypt 3-0 without losing a set. In each preliminary round group, at least the top two teams will qualify for the knockout round. Two of the men’s and four of the women’s group thirds reach the round of 16.
