The table tennis month of April in review: Play-off battle in a marathon of matches

The German Table Tennis League (TTBL) once again provided its fans with plenty to talk about in April. In line with the approaching season highlights of the play-off round and, above all, the Olympics in Paris, the focus was on the final spurt for the last two semi-final places and the nomination of icon Timo Boll in particular, together with European champion Dang Qiu, for the German Olympic team at the Summer Games in France.

However, events in the top flight also remained interesting beyond that. Naturally, new personnel announcements from individual clubs in the build-up to the coming season continued to attract attention, while the league announced its first successful ticket sales for the Liebherr TTBL final on June 30 in Frankfurt and also launched a new youth initiative in conjunction with its media partner Dyn.

Bad Königshofen and Bremen win “two out of five”

In the battle for a place in the championship round, the motto at the start of the most intense month since the start of the year with 17 matches was “two out of five”. From the ambitious quintet behind main round and Champions League winners 1. FC Saarbrücken and defending champions Borussia Düsseldorf, TSV Bad Königshofen and former champions Werder Bremen secured their place in the semi-finals for the first time in five years. Former title winners TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen, TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt and, finally, Post SV Mühlhausen had to bow out of the play-off race one after the other.

Bad Königshofen secured their place in the final round on the last matchday with a 3-0 win against relegated FSV Mainz 05. The club from Lower Franconia had previously missed their first “match point” against Mühlhausen, losing 3-1. For the Thuringian visitors, the win was part of a final spurt of three victories, which were, however, useless in the final reckoning due to Bad Königshofen's lead. Bremen returned to the top four after a 3:2 win against TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell with a 3:1 victory in the “final” in Bergneustadt.

Boll nominated for the Olympics for the seventh time

Boll's comeback, which was hardly thought possible at the time, came last month with the nomination of the record European champion for Germany's three-man squad for the Olympic team tournament. Together with his Düsseldorf club colleague Dang Qiu and Dimitrij Ovtcharov, the 43-year-old is set to challenge China once again at his seventh Summer Games. Saarbrücken captain Patrick Franziska, on the other hand, will have to make do with the role of substitute in France.

Ochsenhausen very active in squad restructuring

Parallel to the sporting events, the clubs continued their preparations. Ochsenhausen was once again particularly active. The Upper Swabians signed Bogdan Pugna as successor to outgoing head coach Fu Yong and once again extended the contract with their team world champion Simon Gauzy, but also announced the departure of Alvaro Robles and Hayate Suzuki after the end of their collaboration with Can Akkuzu and Samuel Kulczycki. Meanwhile, former cup winners ASV Grünwettersbach brought Frenchman Leo De Nodrest from ASTT La Romagne into the German top flight for the coming season.

The designated promoted team TTC OE Bad Homburg also strengthened its squad with a Frenchman: The team from Hesse, who were unable to win the “final” for the second division championship at Borussia Dortmund at the end of April due to a 5:5 draw, also signed Akkuzu as another player with first division experience after the Swedish former doubles world champion Kristian Karlsson.

The exciting action in the TTBL has already whetted the fans' appetite for the final match for the title at the end of June in Frankfurt. Just a few days after tickets went on sale, ticket dealers reported increased demand for tickets.

The TTBL and Dyn want to get young players interested in table tennis. With the streaming provider's new “Move Your Sport” support program, the league management has launched the “Table tennis goes to school” initiative to establish sustainable contacts in the TTBL clubs and get children and young people interested in the sport by offering table tennis clubs.

Florian Manzke