TTBL stars in action at Team World Cup
In the German Table Tennis League (TTBL), the World Team Championships will only cause a break in the schedule. Almost half of all TTBL stars, however, will be playing for a dozen nations starting Friday at the title matches in Chengdu, China.
Despite the break, the German Table Tennis League (TTBL) will be back in action on Friday. At the World Team Championships starting on Friday in Chengdu, almost two dozen stars from the German elite class will be playing for their home countries. With the exception of newcomer 1. FSV Mainz 05, every club from the TTBL will be represented by at least one player in China. In total, 21 TTBL players will compete for 12 nations.
Almost naturally, for the first time in more than half a decade, the German team's line-up at a World Cup tournament will consist only of TTBL aces. Within the squad of national coach Jörg Roßkopf, European Championship winner Dang Qiu and World Championship debutant Kay Stumper from German team champions Borussia Düsseldorf form the largest faction of a Bundesliga club. Through the German former champions Benedikt Duda (TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt) and Ricardo Walther (ASV Grünwettersbach) as well as newcomer Fanbo Meng (TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell), professionals from no less than four TTBL clubs represent the 2018 World Championship runners-up in the Middle Kingdom.
Four clubs from the national top flight have sent three players to China. From Düsseldorf, Anton Källberg will compete for medal candidate Sweden alongside Dang and Stumper. His teammates include World Championship runner-up Truls Moregard from TTC Neu-Ulm and Werder Bremen's doubles World and European champion Mattias Falck. Bremen has a trio in Chengdu with Falck, the Kazakh Kirill Gerassimenko and the Romanian Cristian Pletea as well as ASV Grünwettersbach with Ricardo Walther, Tiago Apolonia (Portutal) and Deni Kozul (Slovenia). In addition, runner-up 1. FC Saarbrücken TT is also represented by European Championship runner-up Darko Jorgic (Slovenia), Cedric Nuytinck (Belgium) and Tomas Polansky (Czech Republic).
The 21 TTBL players at a glimpse
Bremen (3): Mattias Falck (Sweden), Kirill Gerassimenko (Kazakhstan), Cristian Pletea (Romania)
Düsseldorf (3): Anton Källberg (Sweden), Dang Qiu, Kay Stumper (both Germany)
Grünwettersbach (3): Tiago Apolonia (Portugal), Deni Kozul (Slovenia), Ricardo Walther (Germany)
Neu-Ulm (1): Truls Moregard (Sweden)
Saarbrücken (3): Darko Jorgic (Slovenia), Cedric Nuytinck (Belgium), Tomas Polansky (Czech Republic)
Grenzau (2): Maciej Kubik (Poland), Samuel Walker (England)
Ochsenhausen (2): Samuel Kulczycki (Poland), Shunsuke Togami (Japan)
Bergneustadt (1): Benedikt Duda (Germany)
Fulda-Maberzell (1): Fanbo Meng (Germany)
Bad Königshofen (1): Filip Zeljko (Croatia)
Mühlhausen (1): Ovidiu Ionescu (Romania)