Bergneustadt wins thanks to Kanak Jha's fighting spirit
When much was already pointing to the final doubles match between TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt and TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau, Kanak Jha showed his fighting spirit. With two wins, he led Bergneustadt to the opening victory in the German Table Tennis League (TTBL). Feng Yi-Hsin, who had only returned from Peru a few hours before the start of the match, impressed for the visitors.
Kanak Jha was trailing 0:2 against Feng Yi-Hsin. In the third set, he surrendered a 6:4 lead to fall 6:7 behind. It looked as if the duel between TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt and TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau at the end of the first matchday of the German Table Tennis League (TTBL) would only be decided in the doubles. But it was not to come to that. With two 12:10 set wins, Jha fought his way into the decisive round, dominated it from the start and ultimately won 3:2.
“Feng was the better player,” Jha told Dyn afterwards. ”I stole the game from him. The crowd here had a lot of energy. Maybe that was the difference. I tried to play a bit safer with less risk.” At the start of the match, he had taken the 1:0 lead with an unchallenged 3:0 win against Luka Mladenovic. “Kanak was very alert, had good serves and returns. I just wasn't on top of my game today,” said Mladenovic.
Benedikt Duda takes third point - Feng defies fatigue
Benedikt Duda took the third point for Bergneustadt with a 3:1 win against Maciej Kubik. However, the Pole kept up well at the start of the match, securing the first set and only just trailing 7:8 in the second. Duda was determined to prevent the 0:2 set deficit and took a timeout - which proved to be absolutely right. First, he equalized with three consecutive points to make it 1:1 and then Kubik never came close to winning the third and fourth sets.
Feng took the point for Grenzau in his first singles match against Adrien Rassenfosse. Feng also conceded the first set, but improved and won the following rounds more and more clearly. “Feng is such a great player. He lands this afternoon after a ten-hour flight and then plays a match like this,” said Mladenovic with a large dose of appreciation. Feng had played against Darko Jorgic in the semi-finals of the WTT Contender in Peru on Saturday night. However, he was no longer able to prevent his team from losing.
Click here for the current table: https://www.ttbl.de/bundesliga/table
1.st matchday overview
TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt – TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau 3:1
Kanak Jha - Luka Mladenovic 3:0 (11:7, 11:6, 11:6)
Adrien Rassenfosse - Feng Yi-Hsin 1:3 (11:8, 7:11, 4:11, 5:11)
Benedikt Duda - Maciej Kubik 3:1 (9:11, 11:7, 11:5, 11:5)
Kanak Jha - Feng Yi-Hsin 3:2 (5:11, 12:14. 12:10, 12:10, 11:5)
TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen – TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell 1:3
Shunsuke Togami – Fanbo Meng 3:0 (11:8, 11:6,11:8)
Bogdan Pugna – Dimitrij Ovtcharov 0:3 (1:11, 0:11, 0:11)
Tiago Abiodun – Kao Cheng-Jui 0:3 (9:11, 14:16, 4:11)
Shunsuke Togami – Dimitrij Ovtcharov 0:3 (7:11, 9:11, 7:11)
Borussia Düsseldorf – ASC Grünwettersbach 3:0
Anton Källberg - Guilherme Teodoro 3:2 (11:9, 11:6, 6:11, 9:11, 11:1)
Timo Boll - Ricardo Walther 3:2 (5:11, 11:2, 11:5, 7:11, 11:9)
Dang Qiu - Leo de Nodrest 3:2 (10:12, 10:12, 11:7, 11:8, 11:8)
TSV Bad Königshofen – Post SV Mühlhausen 3:0
Bastian Steger - Ovidiu Ionescu 3:0 (11:5, 12:10, 11:4)Filip Zeljko - Steffen Mengel 3:1 (11:9, 11:5, 9:11, 11:6)Jin Ueda - Irvin Bertrand 3:0 (12:10, 11:4, 11:3)
TTC OE Bad Homburg – 1. FC Saarbrücken TT 2:3
Kristian Karlsson - Cedric Meissner 3:1 (9:11, 12:10, 11:9, 11:7)Csaba Andras - Yuto Muramatsu 2:3 (10:12, 11:6, 11:9, 7:11, 10:12)Yuma Tsuboi - Eduard Ionescu 2:3 (11:9, 11:5, 7:11, 11:13, 7:11)Kristian Karlsson - Yuto Muramatsu 3:1 (11:7, 14:12, 9:11, 11:6)Csaba Andras / Yuma Tsuboi - Cedric Meissner / Eduard Ionescu 0:3 (9:11, 10:12, 8:11)
SV Werder Bremen – Borussia Dortmund 3:1
Kirill Gerassimenko – Cedric Nuytinck 3:1 (8:11, 11:6, 11:9, 11:6)
Marcelo Aguirre – Anders Lind 0:3 (4:11, 7:11, 5:11)
Mattias Falck – Yongyin Li 3:0 (11:9, 11:5, 17:15)
Kirill Gerassimenko – Anders Lind 3:2 (12:10, 9:11, 11:13, 11:7 14:12)
All matches in the Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) are broadcast live and on demand on Dyn.
Featured image above: Kanak Jha (Photo: Wolfgang Heil)