“Now we want gold”
Table tennis doubles play spectacularly into the final
30.08.2024, 06:11 a.m.
Stephanie Grebe and Juliane Wolf hug each other in celebration. The German table tennis duo defeated the Norwegian world number one Merethe Tveiten and Aida Husic Dahlen in a spectacular match and will play for gold at the Paralympics.
The table tennis duo Stephanie Grebe and Juliane Wolf are playing for gold at the Paralympics in Paris. The World Championship runners-up won a hard-fought and spectacular semi-final in the doubles starting class WD14 after a nerve-wracking performance with 3:2 (11:5, 7:11, 6:11, 11:9, 11:5) against the top-seeded Norwegians Aida Husic Dahlen and Merethe Tveiten. “If we’re in the Paralympics final, then we want to win it,” announced Wolf. In the final (8 p.m.), Grebe and Wolf will face the Chinese Huang Wenjuan and Jin Yucheng, the first meeting in this constellation.
Valentin Baus and Thomas Schmidberger are also guaranteed a medal. The World Championship third-placed players were already 0-2 sets behind against the Chinese Liu Fu and Zhai Xiang, but after a crazy comeback they won 3-2 (6-11, 12-14, 11-9, 11-9, 12-10) and moved into the semifinals. Since there is no match for third place in the men’s doubles, Baus and Schmidberger are guaranteed at least bronze.
Baus and Schmidberger had previously won their round of 16 match against Filip Nachazel and Petr Svatos from the Czech Republic with a clear 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-6). Baus also had to play in the mixed doubles between the round of 16 and the quarter-finals, but was eliminated in the opening match alongside Jana Spegel.
The first day of competition at the Summer Games got off to a rough start for Grebe and Wolf. Grebe’s regular racket failed the test in the morning, and the third-place singles player from Tokyo had to switch to her second racket. The quarter-final against the French players Morgen Caillaud and Lucie Hautiere started late. But Grebe and Wolf remained highly concentrated at the table. Even the thousands of French fans in the atmospheric Arena Sud 4 did not unsettle them. The duo only got nervous for a short time during the 3:1 (11:4, 8:11, 11:4, 11:9). Grebe and Wolf then lost their match in the mixed doubles. “That was a tiring day. We’re going to go and eat something now and then fall into bed,” said Grebe.