Bremen celebrates second win of the season
Less than a week after the season opener of the German Table Tennis League (TTBL), ASC Grünwettersbach and Werder Bremen opened the second matchday. While Bremen also won their second match after beating BVB 3:1 a week ago, ASC Grünwettersbach are still waiting for their first points and have already dropped to the lower end of the table early on in the season. The Portuguese Tiago Apolonia was used for the first time. However, he was unable to prevent the 3-1 defeat.
Tiago Apolonia was still on the bench for ASC Grünwettersbach's match against Borussia Düsseldorf on the first matchday of the German Table Tennis League (TTBL). Against Werder Bremen, the Portuguese was now allowed to take to the table himself - and was immediately successful. With a 3:2 win against Marcelo Aguirre, he gave ASC a 1:0 lead. Apolonia looked relaxed and relaxed and took a 2:0 lead, but Aguirre showed fighting spirit. First he equalized to 2:2 after sets, then he was not discouraged by a 6:10 deficit in the fifth set. The Bremen player came back point by point. At 13:12, he had a match point himself, but was unable to capitalize on it. By contrast, Apolonia's seventh match point was enough to end the duel.
But Bremen turned the game around in the increasingly warm and humid arena. As against Borussia Dortmund, the recipe for success was Kirill Gerassimenko twice and Mattias Falck once. Once again, Gerassimenko has taken over the top player position. A week ago, he said that it was more pressure for him to take on the responsibility in two singles matches. But once again he stood up to it and after two match days has a spotless 4:0 record
Gerassimenko leads Bremen to victory again - Falck finishes
Gerassimenko lived up to his role as favorite against Leo de Nodrest, even though the Frenchman was able to keep up for a long time. However, Gerassimenko showed his class at the end of the sets and pulled away, winning all three sets. However, the Kazakh needed five sets to prevail against Apolonia. The fourth set in particular went clearly to the Portuguese player with 11:3. “When it's so hot in the hall and the match is so close, your head doesn't work so well. Sometimes you lose a few points very quickly and you have to come back,” Gerassimenko explained to Dyn afterwards. However, he managed to do so with 11:8 and saved his teammates the double.
Mattias Falck had previously given Bremen a 2:1 lead with a 3:1 against Ricardo Walther. The Swede had to concede the first set to the German, but then he clearly prevailed. Only the third set was a little tighter. Overall, Falck was the more consistent of the two players.
Over the next few days, table tennis fans can enjoy the TTBL at its best. Up to and including Monday, at least one match of the second matchday will be played every day. The third round starts on Tuesday - and Bremen will begin the matchday once again with an away game at 1. FC Saarbrücken, who will first host Bergneustadt at home on Saturday. For Grünwettersbach, it continues in a week's time on Sunday with the first home game of Bundesliga debutants Borussia Dortmund.
Click here for the current table: https://www.ttbl.de/bundesliga/table
Overview of the 2nd matchday
ASC Grünwettersbach – SV Werder Bremen 1:3
Tiago Apolonia – Marcelo Aguirre 3:2 (11:7, 11:9, 6:11, 8:11, 15:13)
Leo de Nodrest – Kirill Gerassimenko 0:3 (7:11, 7:11, 10:12)
Ricardo Walther – Mattias Falck 1:3 (11:7, 5:11, 8:11, 3:11)
Tiago Apolonia – Kirill Gerassimenko 2:3 (11:9, 10:12, 8:11, 11:3, 8:11)
Friday, August 30th
7 p.m.: TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell – Borussia Düsseldorf
Saturday, August 31st
7.30 p.m.: 1. FC Saarbrücken TT – TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt
Sunday, September 1st
2 p.m.: TSV Bad Königshofen – TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen
5 p.m.: TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau – TTC OE Bad Homburg
Monday, September 2nd
7 p.m.: Post SV Mühlhausen – BV Borussia 09 Dortmund
All matches in the Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) are broadcast live and on demand on Dyn.
Featured image above: Mattias Falck (Photo: PingPongPhoto)