Dimitrij Ovtcharov reached the third round at the Table Tennis World Championships in South Africa.
The former world number one from TTC Neu-Ulm won 4:1 sets against the Italian Niagol Stoyanov on Monday evening and can now take revenge for his loss of the World Cup four years ago.
Because Ovtcharov’s next opponent is the Croatian Tomislav Pucar, against whom he surprisingly lost in the third round in Budapest in 2019.
34-year-old Ovtcharov caught a tough draw in Durban. If he also beats Pucar, he could already meet Vice World Champion Truls Möregardh (Sweden) in the round of 16 and defending champion Fan Zhendong (China) or European Champion Dang Qiu (Germany) in the quarterfinals.