TTBL stars bring back World Cup medal shine from China
The German Table Tennis League (TTBL) can present its fans more than half a dozen medal winners at the season continuation after the World Team Championships in Chengdu. But also below the podium many TTBL professionals entered the World Championship result lists with good results.
Seven aces from the German Table Tennis League (TTBL) have brought home medals from the World Team Championships in Chengdu. Besides the silver quintet of the German national team - Dang Qiu, Kay Stumper (both Borussia Düsseldorf), Benedikt Duda (TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt), Ricardo Walther (ASV Grünwettersbach) and Fanbo Meng (TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell), the bronze medalists Tomokazu Harimoto (TTC Neu-Ulm) and Shunsuke Togami (TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen) from Japan also stood on the podium at the award ceremony in China. This means that for half of the twelve TTBL clubs, the glamor of World Championship medals is hanging over the upcoming compulsory matches.
With his record in Chengdu, Harimoto even outshone the stars of the old and new world champions China. The top 10 player's 11:1 record included his heroics against the world champion and world number one Fan Zhendong and the former doubles world champion Wang Chuqin, especially from the World Championship semifinal against the hosts. Qiu (8:4) and Romanian Ovidiu Ionescu (Post SV Mühlhausen/6:2) as well as Harimoto's national team mate Shunsuke Togami (6:3) and his club mate and runner-up Truls Moregard (Sweden/4:1) also performed well in the Middle Kingdom.
Of the 20 TTBL professionals who traveled to the event, no fewer than 15 players achieved a positive result. Only two players from the Bundesliga recorded more defeats than victories. Meng was the only TTBL player in Chengdu who did not get beyond the status of a World Championship tourist.
Players from the TTBL competed in eleven teams. Alongside Germany and Japan, Sweden came furthest by reaching the quarter-finals with its TTBL trio Moregard, Mattias Falck (Werder Bremen) and Anton Källberg (Düsseldorf). At least the teams from Belgium, England, Croatia, Poland and Slovenia also reached the round of the best 16 with the help of TTBL stars. Already after the preliminary round, however, the World Cup was over for the TTBL players in the teams of Kazakhstan, Romania and the Czech Republic.
The performance of the 20 TTBL players at the World Team Championships in Chengdu/China at a glance:
Bergneustadt (1): Benedikt Duda (Germany/Final/6:4)
Bremen (2): Mattias Falck (Sweden/Quarter-final/3:1), Kirill Gerassimenko (Kazakhstan/Qualifying round/3:2)
Düsseldorf (3): Anton Källberg (Sweden/Quarter-final/2:1), Dang Qiu (Germany/Final/8:4), Kay Stumper (Germany/Final/4:2)
Fulda-Maberzell (1): Fanbo Meng (Germany/Finale/0:0)
Grenzau (2): Maciej Kubik (Poland/round of 16/2:2), Samuel Walker (England//round of 16/1:4)
Grünwettersbach (2): Deni Kozul (Slovenia//round of 16/3:2), Ricardo Walther (Germany/Final/1:1)
Bad Königshofen (1): Filip Zeljko (Croatia//round of 16/3:2)
Mühlhausen (1): Ovidiu Ionescu (Romania/Qualifying round/6:2)
Neu-Ulm (2): Tomokazu Harimoto (Japan/Semi-final/11:1), Truls Moregard (Sweden/Quarter-final/4:1)
Ochsenhausen (2): Samuel Kulczycki (Poland/round of 16/2:3), Shunsuke Togami (Japan/Semi-final/6:3)
Saarbrücken (3): Darko Jorgic (Slovenia/round of 16/4:2), Cedric Nuytinck (Belgium/round of 16/4:2), Tomas Polansky (Czech Republic/Qualifying round/4:2)