The table tennis month of June in review: Crowning of champions and a shower of medals
The TTBL season and the first half of the table tennis season ended with a bang. The spectacular Liebherr TTBL final in Frankfurt, featuring a clash between perennial rivals Borussia Düsseldorf and 1. FC Saarbrücken TT, was a worthy conclusion to the season and not only the Borussians and their star Timo Boll deserved to win.
However, even more titles were played out in June. At the TT Finals in Erfurt, Benedikt Duda from TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt was crowned national singles champion two weeks after his first WTT Contender success in Mendoza. Like Duda, the Brazilian top 10 star Hugo Calderano from TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen caused an international sensation with his semi-final appearance at the WTT Champions in Chongqing and his subsequent Contender title in Ljubljana, but also Düsseldorf's European champion Dang Qiu, also a semi-finalist in Chongqing, and former team runner-up Ricardo Walther from ASV Grünwettersbach, who reached the German final of the WTT Contender in Lagos against Dimitrij Ovtcharov.
In keeping with the motto "saving the best for last", the Liebherr TTBL final on the last day of June was the absolute highlight of the month for German table tennis fans.
In addition to Borussia, who triumphed in their 34th championship for the fourth time in a row, Boll also extended a personal best in front of 3,000 spectators in Frankfurt: The idol celebrated his 14th championship with the successful revenge for the defeat in the Champions League final and has thus always been part of the winning team in all Bundesliga finals in the Düsseldorf jersey.
However, after his 2:3 against Darko Jorgic, Boll only had the role of "lucky loser" despite seven match points. Qiu was Düsseldorf's guarantor of victory with 3:1 victories in the opening match against national team colleague Patrick Franziska and in the decisive top duel with Jorgic. In the meantime, Anton Källberg had put the defending champions back in the lead with a 3-0 win against Cedric Meissner. "Fortunately," said Boll, "my defeat didn't mean a total loss for us."
The event was a complete success for the TTBL. Table tennis fans were able to follow the Liebherr TTBL final on the day of the final in the live stream of TTBL media partner Dyn as well as in summaries on the sports programs of Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR), Hessischer Rundfunk (HR) and ZDF. Sport1 also broadcast a one-hour summary on free TV with a 24-hour delay.
"The overall popularity," said TTBL Managing Director Nico Stehle, "underlines the increased importance of the Liebherr TBL Final. Even though Saarbücken didn't manage to win, there were only winners at this event."
Meanwhile, Boll was still pondering the hope of a 15th and final TTBL final with Düsseldorf next year: "That would of course be nice if it was enough for all of us and I could be there again as a player."
Boll will definitely no longer be traveling to China as a player. At his last tournament in the Middle Kingdom in Chongqing, the local fans celebrated their German crowd favorite enthusiastically for several minutes after his round of 16 exit against Frenchman Felix Lebrun and later queued up for autographs and selfies. "These are very emotional moments for me these days in China. I would like to thank all my fans in China," said Boll, cheered on by the spectators at the indoor microphone: "I've had so many great experiences in this country and learned so much, every single match was a pleasure. China is my second home and I will be back - next time as a tourist."
His sponsor ARAG took up the wish of certainly not a few fans for a further extension of Boll's career in a video homage to the "eternal Timo" with a wink: In the film, Boll prepares for the Olympic Games again - in 2048 at the age of 67...
Duda was obviously still in his prime as an athlete in Erfurt. In the NDM final against crowd favorite Steffen Mengel from the Thuringian TTBL team Post SV Mühlhausen, the 30-year-old repeated his title win from 2021 with a 4:1. "This success means more to me than the first one," said Duda after the match about the significance of his victory.
Florian Manzke
Featured images: Timo Boll with trophy (photo: BeLa Sportfoto) and emotional run-in (photo: Hansruedi Lüthi)