Bremen stay on track as Apolonia impresses
Despite a superb showing from Tiago Apolonia, SV Werder Bremen took care of business at home on Sunday, claiming a 3:2 win over ASC Grunwettersbach in the TTBL play-off race. In the end, Bremen’s depth and collective effort proved decisive. As the closest challengers to leaders Borussia Dusseldorf, Werder remain firmly on course, while ASC suffered a sixth straight defeat.
While Werder coach Cristian Tamas had previously played down his team’s prospects despite finishing the first half of the season top, he struck a confident tone in his Dyn interview ahead of Sunday’s match. “Of course we want to reach the play-offs now that we’ve put ourselves in such a good position after the first half,” Tamas said. The 3:2 victory against ASC Grunwettersbach was another step in that direction. After 14 matches, Bremen sit second and remain the first pursuers of league leaders Borussia Dusseldorf.
Once again, Bremen’s recipe was team unity: four different players contributed the three points required. For Grunwettersbach, the story was different. “Tiago played very, very well,” head coach Kilian Ort praised his No. 1. With a five-set win over Mattias Falck and a clear 3:0 against Kirill Gerassimenko, the experienced Portuguese left ASC in a promising position. Ort explained that Apolonia had often struggled against Falck in recent years, but delivered strongly this time in both singles.
Ort: Jarvis “could barely open his eye for a few minutes”
For Bremen, Gerassimenko opened with a nerve-shredding win over Tobias Hippler, a match that pushed the Kazakh to the brink at times. “Hippi played well and fought,” Ort said. “He looked pretty hopeless in the first set, but worked his way in well. When you then have two or three match points, one of them can drop in.” After the break, Marcelo Aguirre made it 2:1 for the hosts with a 3:1 win over Tom Jarvis.
The newcomer from England had to pay some early TTBL dues. “It can go like last week, where he wins two points. But this is the TTBL: if you’re just a little bit below your level, it can also go like it did today,” Ort said. Then came a particularly nasty moment in the doubles. In the second set, a net-cord deflection off Ricardo Walther’s racket struck Jarvis from close range in his exposed eye, forcing a medical time-out. “For a few minutes he could barely open his eye,” Ort explained. Jarvis was able to continue, but he and Walther could not prevent a 1:3 defeat against Bremen’s unbeaten pair Falck/Bertrand.
Matchday 14 fixtures
Borussia Dusseldorf – TTC OE Clarity-Telefonie Systeme Bad Homburg 3:0
Dang Qiu – Juan Perez 3:0 (11:5, 11:4, 11:3)
Li Yongyin – Csaba Andras 3:0 (11:7, 11:6, 11:8)
Anton Kallberg – Ivor Ban 3:0 (12:10, 11:6, 11:7)
SV Werder Bremen – ASC Grunwettersbach 3:2
Kirill Gerassimenko – Tobias Hippler 3:2 (11:5, 12:14, 10:12, 14:12, 11:7)
Mattias Falck – Tiago Apolonia 2:3 (4:11, 8:11, 11:2, 11:6, 8:11)
Marcelo Aguirre – Tom Jarvis 3:1 (11:8, 11:6, 15:17, 11:8)
Kirill Gerassimenko – Tiago Apolonia 0:3 (9:11, 8:11, 9:11)
Falck/Bertrand – Walther/Jarvis 3:1 (11:4, 11:3, 8:11, 11:8)
Borussia Dortmund – TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen 3:1
Anders Lind – Tiago Abiodun 1:3 (11:3, 6:11, 8:11, 12:14)
Adam Szudi – Iulian Chirita 3:1 (12:10, 11:7, 8:11, 11:5)
Kristian Karlsson – Leonardo Iizuka 3:0 (11:5, 11:4, 11:5)
Anders Lind – Iulian Chirita 3:1 (11:5, 5:11, 11:8, 11:8)
1. FC Saarbrucken-TT – TSV Bad Konigshofen 3:1
Eduard Ionescu – Hermann Muhlbach 3:2 (6:11, 12:14, 11:9, 11:4, 11:7)
Cedric Meissner – Filip Zeljko 3:2 (6:11, 14:12, 6:11, 11:8, 11:0)
Lichen Wang – Bastian Steger 2:3 (10:12, 11:7, 13:11, 8:11, 7:11)
Eduard Ionescu – Filip Zeljko 3:1 (11:6, 6:11, 11:9, 11:7)
Post SV Muhlhausen – TTC RhonSprudel Fulda-Maberzell 3:2
Steffen Mengel – Fanbo Meng 3:1 (13:11, 8:11, 11:8, 12:10)
Ovidiu Ionescu – Dimitrij Ovtcharov 2:3 (11:9, 8:11, 11:7, 6:11, 13:15)
Liao Cheng-Ting – Ruwen Filus 2:3 (12:10, 13:11, 9:11, 10:12, 7:11)
Steffen Mengel – Dimitrij Ovtcharov 3:0 (11:9, 11:8, 11:7)
Liao/Ionescu – Meng/Meng 3:1 (9:11, 12:10, 11:9, 11:7)
Sunday, 25 January:
17:00: TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt – TTC Zugbrucke Grenzau
All matches are streamed live on Dyn.
Picture: Mattias Falck of SV Werder Bremen (Photo: SV Werder Bremen)