Olympic Games: DTTB men's medal dreams burst at Boll's emotional farewell
After winning two silver and two bronze medals, Germany's men's table tennis team missed out on a fifth consecutive Olympic semi-final. The silver medallists from Tokyo lost 3-0 to European champions Sweden in the quarter-finals on Tuesday evening in a controversial rematch of the 2023 European Championship final in front of Timo Boll's basketball star friend Dirk Nowitzki and Sweden's King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia. Germany's elimination also marks the end of a unique table tennis career: After more than two and a half decades, Timo Boll stepped onto the international table tennis stage for the last time at the Olympic Games.
Timo Boll bids farewell with ovations
The Swedish team's jubilation at reaching the semi-finals was almost drowned out in the South Paris Arena 4. After Germany's elimination, 6,400 spectators from all over the world, including Germany's basketball icon Dirk Nowitzki, who is a friend of Timo Boll, shouted goodbye to one of the world's best, most creative and most popular table tennis players of all time. At the end of May, the former world number one, two-time World Cup winner, two-time World Championship bronze medallist and record European champion announced that he would be taking to the international table tennis stage for the last time at the Olympic Games in Paris. After one more season with his club Borussia Düsseldorf, Timo Boll will also bring his national career to a close in 2025.
Timo Boll: "I was brutally overwhelmed by the chants"
Timo Boll was deeply moved by the chants and the affection of the entire hall and was not ashamed of his tears afterwards: "I was brutally overwhelmed by the chants. Even though it was of course very nice to get so much feedback from the audience. It was tough: the disappointment straight after the game of being eliminated, not being completely satisfied with my own game and that the hard work didn't pay off as I had hoped. On the other hand, it was immediately clear in my head that the national team was really over now." However, he will also miss the national team community: "I will miss a lot, especially the team spirit in the team competitions. I was on the international tour with Dima for 18 years. Patrick Franziska was eight years old when he trained in my basement at home. I've known the boys for so long. They're like a little family and I'm losing them today. That's why it's a bit emotional."
"The motorhome is now being used even more"
Timo Boll also looked to the future a little on his farewell: "We have good guys and I can now leave without a guilty conscience. I'm glad that Patrick is now slipping in. He had to go through a lot here and I felt really sorry for him. He has endured it with a lot of respect and pride. I have great respect for him. Hopefully he'll now be the mainstay for the next few years together with Dima and Dang. But we need new blood. Let's see what happens in the next generation."
Timo Boll has a few days off after his elimination: "I'm going on vacation with my family for a week now. That's not long, but we table tennis players are used to that. I'll have a lot of time off when the boys are traveling internationally. I know my schedule now. It includes a lot of free time, which I'm really looking forward to. I want to spend a lot of time with family and friends. The motorhome will be used even more now."
Jörg Roßkopf: "It was an honor to work with Timo"
National coach Jörg Roßkopf was touched after Timo Boll's last appearance: "Timo is an outstanding player for the sport of table tennis. The greatest we've ever had. One of the all-time greats in German sport! We definitely have very good players, but it's very difficult to get such an exceptional player again. In Jan-Ove Waldner, the Swedes had a player who dominated their table tennis for a long time, just like Timo did for us. It was a great pleasure and an honor to work with him. He's a very relaxed guy."
Team-mate Dimitrij Ovtcharov said: "Timo Boll is one of the greatest table tennis players of all time. He has had an incredibly long career at this high level. Everyone knew that one of the days at the Olympics would be his last match on the international stage - whether today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. It was highly emotional, firstly because we lost, but also because it was Timo's last match." Ovtcharov praises the human qualities of his long-time companion: "Apart from the fact that he is a great table tennis player, he is a very good person who always gives a lot. We have played many great matches against each other. And when I won, like at the World Cup for example, I always had the feeling that when the last set was played, he was happy for me and we could go out for dinner together afterwards. I've rarely met athletes, and I also know a few from other sports, who are so quick to classify victories or defeats and then return to normality. Timo was our calming influence in the team. When the stress was high at tournaments like this, he always exuded a great sense of calm and composure that always did us good."
European champion Dang Qiu added: "He doesn't begrudge anyone any success, he's a warm-hearted guy. Regardless of how things went for him, he always gave it to everyone who took the next step or won something. When I joined the national team, he had already won everything you can win. He's so down-to-earth, so normal, so sociable. He's just a great guy. He's also a great role model for us. You can only congratulate Timo on such a career. It's unbelievable what he's achieved, what he means for table tennis and the sport in general."
One last forehand seals Boll's international career
A few minutes before the standing ovation from his fans, a final forehand from Boll missed its target by just a few centimeters and sealed the narrow 7:11, 9:11, 11:7 and 8:11 defeat of the 43-year-old superstar against his Düsseldorf club colleague Anton Källberg. The third chapter of the classic match between Germany and Sweden also put an end to the DTTB men's dream of reaching the semi-finals for the fifth time in a row. Timo Boll reviewed his last thoughts from the match after the duel: "At 7:9, I briefly thought that it might be coming to an end. I still fought and bit and didn't give in without a fight. Even that thought didn't let me turn the match around. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough."
Sweden secure the 1:0 lead in the doubles
Boll's first appearance in the important opening doubles, in which the Swedes were favored, was not a lucky one. Playing alongside European champion Dang Qiu, Boll lost to Anton Källberg and ex-Borussian Kristian Karlsson in three hard-fought sets. At 10:12, 8:11 and 8:11, the DTTB combination initially got off to a promising start, but were always trailing from the middle of the set onwards. Boll/Qiu fended off two set points from the Scandinavians at 8:10 in the open exchange of blows, but the set and the next two sets went to the well-coordinated duo of Källberg/Karlsson. In particular, the positioning of former doubles world champion Karlsson repeatedly caused problems for the Germans in the many spectacular rallies. Symptomatically, it was also Karlsson who ended the match with a hard parallel forehand shot.
Timo Boll said afterwards: "I'm the type of player who always needs a little bit. I wasn't at all happy with the doubles. It got better and better against Anton and he played well. The whole Swedish team was very strong. We have to respect the fact that the others also worked hard, caught up brutally and even overtook us. The boys have to step up their game without me."
Ovtcharov has victory on his racket against silver medalist Möregardh
Dimitrij Ovtcharov put in a world-class performance in the second match of the evening and ensured that Germany could hope for an equalizer until the last rally. Dimitrij Ovtcharov looked like the winner in a high-class match against the Olympic silver medalist Truls Möregardh in the fifth and deciding set when he was leading 5:1 and 6:2, but had to let the Swede pass him at 7:7 after a series of high-class points. In the showdown of the top players, it was Ovtcharov's return error at 9:10 that sealed the bitter 0:2 deficit for the DTTB team. Before that, however, the record Olympic medal winner Dimitrij Ovtcharov had also briefly had victory in sight in the fourth set, when he equalized against Möregardh after trailing 2:5 at 8:8, but was then unable to prevent the Swede from equalizing the set.
Dimitrij Ovtcharov: "The defeat is extremely bitter"
Dimitrij Ovtcharov admitted after the elimination: "The disappointment is huge. We've been used to winning medals since Beijing 2008, ever since the team competition started. Now we've lost 3-0 in the quarter-finals. That's extremely bitter. The doubles didn't go as we had imagined. I gave everything in my singles match. Truls is an amazing player. A silver medal like that in the singles competition spurs you on to believe you can win at any level. I kept at it, gave it my all and was ahead in the fifth set. Unfortunately, I didn't score the points I had to. He saved balls that I played well extremely well. A lot came together. Truls played so well in the end. If I draw the game, Timo has a better starting position and Dang was extremely well prepared. We trained extremely hard in preparation and weren't rewarded for it here. If only: we lost 3:0. The fact that Timo's last game at international level was the elimination in the Olympic quarter-finals simply sucks. We gave our all both in preparation and here, but so did the Swedes, the French and everyone else. Unfortunately, luck wasn't on our side this time."
National coach Jörg Roßkopf: "Dima's game was the sticking point"
After the elimination, the German men were very disappointed, as national coach Jörg Roßkopf admitted: "At the moment, we are focusing on our disappointment at the defeat. We wanted to get as far as possible here for Timo and for the whole team. We wanted to get the maximum out of it, but Sweden is an excellent team and was perfectly prepared here." The national coach also went into analysis: "Dima led in his game. But sometimes a game goes in the wrong direction. Dima's game was of course a sticking point. When you lead 5:1 and 6:2 in the deciding set and lose the match, it's always bitter. But we knew that something like that could happen. We also wanted to come back afterwards. Timo fought until the last point. But Anton played some very, very good balls. In addition, Anton naturally had a boost in the third game when the Swedes took a 2-0 lead. We have to congratulate the Swedes on an excellent match."
Roßkopf: "We have to work even harder now"
Roßkopf assessed the defeat: "We have a strong team and tried to prepare the players in the best possible way. The players were also really good. But we know that world table tennis has changed. We were eliminated in the quarter-finals at the World Championships. There are no longer just two or three good nations. Since the introduction of the team competition in 2008, we've always been in the medal ranks at the Olympics and have always been among the front runners in the last 25 or 30 years. Now there are many more individual players and teams competing for the podium. It's sometimes difficult for outsiders to understand, but as an athlete you're used to it. It's always difficult to take the next step forward from the quarter-finals onwards at the European Championships, World Cup and Olympics. We have to work even harder for that now."
Roßkopf continued: "We first have to come to terms with the defeat and then with the fact that it was Timo's last game. We now have to compensate for a player who can't be compensated for. But we're trying to get the maximum out of it and attack again so that we're back at the front at the next major events. But things are moving fast. The Bundesliga kicks off on August 23. In table tennis, it always goes on. Tomorrow we'll be supporting our women's team and then we'll have a vacation sometime later."
Men's team
Quarterfinals
Deutschland - Schweden 0:3
Boll/Qiu - Källberg/Karlsson 0:3 (-10,-8,-8)
Dimitrij Ovtcharov - Truls Möregardh 2:3 (-9,8,7,-8,-9)
Timo Boll - Anton Källberg 1:3 (-7,-9,7,-8)
Source: DTTB press release
Featured images: (Photos: BeLa Sportfoto)