“Days of truth” for Ovtcharov and Fulda

After returning from his unsuccessful trip to the Europe Top 16 in Montreux, national table tennis player Dimitrij Ovtcharov is facing “days of truth” with Bundesliga club TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell. In the duels on Tuesday (6.30 p.m.) with 1. FC Saarbrücken and two days later (Thursday/19.00 p.m./both Dyn) at Borussia Düsseldorf, the East Hessians could also lose their good starting position in the fight for the play-off participation, which is also firmly planned.

“The race has become pretty tight,” Ovtcharov's club and national team colleague Ruwen Filus confirmed in a TTBL interview, confirming a pressure situation for Fulda.

According to the former European Championship fifth seed, the three-time runners-up are still reeling from their unexpected 3-0 home defeat against TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt. “That was a real damper for us. So we probably need two points either against Saarbrücken or in Düsseldorf, that would be very important for us,” said Filus.

In fact, after numerous weeks in the top flight, Fulda could occupy a place in the table on Thursday evening that would not entitle them to take part in the semi-finals. Champions League winners Saarbrücken have had a run in their race to catch up and could possibly overtake the fourth-placed hosts in Fulda with their fourth win in a row. Düsseldorf have not yet secured their play-off qualification either and therefore have nothing to give away five rounds before the end of the main round.

Ovtcharov was beaten 2:3 in Montreux in a duel with Saarbrücken's top player Patrick Franziska despite twice leading the set. However, club president Stefan Frauenholz does not want to see either the setback against Bergneustadt or Ovtcharov's first round defeat in Switzerland as a bad omen: “It's nothing dramatic.”

Source: SID
Featured image above: Dimitrij Ovtcharov (l.) and Ruwen Filus (r.) (Photo: SID/IMAGO/Patrick Wichmann)