Three-way battle for two play-off places

A “final” with two winners? A Champions League winner on the sidelines? Almost anything is possible in the main round final of the German Table Tennis League (TTBL) on Saturday (6 p.m./Dyn). Because the most exciting play-off race in TTBL history will deliver a thriller par excellence on the finish line with a three-way battle for just two semi-final places.

“Thanks to our Champions League victories, I don't see any advantage for us in this final,” said top-10 ace Patrick Franziska from fifth-placed 1. FC Saarbrücken TT in a SID survey ahead of the trip to the showdown at third-placed TSV Bad Königshofen. The winner of the match will reach the knockout phase in any case. “We're playing for survival,” said Franziska in the TTBL interview.

In any case, the constellation in the table makes for a furious finale. Bad Königshofen cannot rest on its two-point lead over its nearest rivals, TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell (at Post SV Mühlhausen) and Saarbrücken, because the important match difference offers no team a reliable advantage. All three play-off candidates therefore still have their fate on their own hands.

But even the loser of Bad Königshofen is not automatically eliminated. Fulda, with national player Dimitrij Ovtcharov, will only be guaranteed a place in the semi-finals with a win, while a defeat for the Hessians in Thuringia would ultimately bring the slide rule into play.

Accordingly, Franziska was not the only one feeling the tension. Fulda even called his Taiwanese player Kao Cheng-Jui back to Germany from a break for the final spurt as life insurance. “We don't want to let it get that far and have to look to Saarbrücken,” said Fulda's former European Championship fifth-placer Ruwen Filus.

Bad Königshofen's camp is still mourning the unexpected 3:1 defeat against ASC Grünwettersbach. “Because we lost, it's become rather difficult for us,” admitted former national player Bastian Steger. But the veteran has not yet given up on his team: “Anything is still possible for us in this league, not least because nobody likes playing in our arena.”

Franziska draws confidence from his experience for the performance in the Hexenkessel: “I've been in similar situations before with Saarbrücken and before that with Borussia Düsseldorf - and we always made it through. But we'll still be looking at the live ticker on Saturday.”

For once, Timo Boll is not in a “do or die” situation. Overshadowed by the action in Bad Königshofen and Mühlhausen, the idol will play the last point match of his career on his farewell tour with champions Borussia Düsseldorf at Borussia Dortmund. His club has already qualified for the play-offs, as have cup winners TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen.

Source: SID
Featured image above: Patrick Franziska (Photo: Schnittbude/Benedikt Probst)