Friday, November 26th, 2021
Numerous surprises
The way to the World Cup is paved for strong bolls
Somewhat surprisingly, a new possible path through the table tennis world championship has opened up for Timo Boll: There are numerous surprises in the half of the tournament for the record European champion. One of them is produced by his teammate – and is annoyed about it.
Record European champion Timo Boll made it to the round of 16 at the table tennis world championships in Houston. The 40-year-old defeated the 21-year-old Pang Yew En Koen from Singapore on Friday morning in German time in 4-0 sets. The next opponent is the Slovak Yang Wang. In the quarter-finals, there could be a duel with his German national team colleague Ruwen Filus. The 33-year-old from Fulda defeated the Harimoto conqueror Jakub Dyjas from Poland 4-0 and is now playing against the American Kanak Jha.
On the other hand, Patrick Franziska suffered a bitter defeat. The team European champion from 1. FC Saarbrücken lost only a few hours after his double-off with Timo Boll in the singles with 3: 4 against the 19-year-old Swede Truls Möregardh. “I’m disappointed, upset – everything a little,” said the world number 14. With Franziska and the Olympic semi-finalist Lin Yun-Ju from Taiwan, other top players from Boll’s half of the tournament were eliminated on Friday night. Previously, Vice World Champion Mattias Falck from Sweden and number two seeded Japanese Tomokazu Harimoto failed surprisingly early. Boll could only meet a Chinese again in the final at this World Cup.
“Not in the best shape”
In the case of women, on the other hand, the last German representatives were eliminated in the night. Han Ying from the Polish club KTS Tarnobrzeg lost in the third round in 0: 4 sets against the Olympic runner-up Sun Yingsha from China. Shan Xiaona (TTC Berlin Eastside) also had no chance in the 0: 4 against the Chinese Chen Xingtong. “It wasn’t the best tournament for us,” said national coach Tamara Boros about her players’ progress in the World Cup. “Ying and Nana played well, but their opponents were just too strong today. The rest of the team were not in their best shape.”
The German number one Petrissa Solja was eliminated the night before against the Romanian Andreea Dragoman. Team European champion Nina Mittelham lost to American Amy Wang in the first round. “Petrissa didn’t have the best preparation. Nina has played too much in the last few months. It was also difficult for her to deal mentally with the successes in the Top 16 tournament and the European Championship,” said Boros. “We have to calm down first and then analyze what we can do better.”