China’s overwhelming power is too great: German table tennis men win silver


China’s overwhelming power is too great
German table tennis men win silver

The German table tennis men missed the sensation in the final of the Olympic Games. Timo Boll, Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Patrick Franziska defend themselves as best they can, but China is simply too strong.

Germany’s table tennis men around Dimitrij Ovtcharov could not gold their silver medal at the Olympics and failed in the final due to the clearly superior Chinese. In their first final at the Olympic Games since 2008, the German team was brutally shown their limits in Tokyo. Ovtcharov, Timo Boll and Patrick Franziska had to admit defeat to the top favorite with 0: 3. Only three out of twelve sets won, was the disappointing result – that was by far not enough for the desired sensation.

Nevertheless, the German trio can celebrate their second place as a great success. Gold was not to be expected given the dominance of the Asians. After silver 13 years ago and two bronze medals in 2012 and 2016, it is the fourth medal in a row for the Germans in the team competition. At these summer games in Japan it is the second after winning bronze for top player Ovtcharov in the singles. The women had lost their small final for bronze in the team event.

Ovtcharov and his teammates had dreamed of the sensation against the Chinese gold medalists this time more than ever. “The difference to the 2008 Olympic final is that it was the greatest for us to have reached the final at all,” said sports director Richard Prause before the final. “We are now not only satisfied with having achieved it, we are dying to play it.”

But the Chinese with the top three in the world rankings were too strong again and won the fourth edition of this competition format for the fourth time. Individual Olympic champion Ma Long polished his collection with the fifth gold medal. Ovtcharov has now been decorated with Olympic precious metal for the sixth time – no other table tennis athlete can match this number.

Rallies that would have deserved a full hall

The clear 0: 3 in the double between Boll and Franziska thwarted the plan to put the number one on the seeding list under pressure with an opening win. Against Ma Long and Xu Xin, the duo was way too quickly behind. The Chinese loudly cheered every point, supported by an unusually large group of around 25 compatriots alone in the supervisor block these days. Boll’s look, on the other hand, was already annoyed when it became clear to him at 2: 9 in the second set that there was nothing to be gained against this Chinese double that day. Boll and Franziska seemed at a loss in view of the rivals’ rapid point gains. Round three was narrower, but not once did the Germans lead.

Ovtcharov proved his current world-class form against world number one Fan Zhendong and started promisingly. With 2: 1 sets, the number seven was ahead in the world and delivered rallies with the Olympic runner-up from Tokyo in individual rallies that would have deserved a full hall. After a 4: 4 in the fourth set, the 32-year-old only won four more rallies and clearly lost the decisive set. After the 2: 3 he crept away with sagging shoulders. Even this hope of more than annoying the Chinese was gone.

The Chinese had only given four sets in the previous three rounds in this team competition. They hadn’t lost a game – and it stayed that way on this final evening. Boll held against Ma Long, won a set and fended off a total of five match points. But in the end the decision was made in only three instead of five possible games.

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