The first step has been taken. Even without three top players, defending champion Germany is in the round of 16 of the European Table Tennis Team Championships. Timo Boll had an eventful evening against Poland.
After the German women, the men’s national table tennis team also reached the round of 16 of the European Team Championships.
Timo Boll (Borussia Düsseldorf), Benedikt Duda (TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt) and Ricardo Walther (ASV Grünwettersbach) secured first place in preliminary group A with a 3-1 win against Poland in Malmö.
The long-injured record European champion Boll lost his first singles against 17-year-old Milosz Redzimski in 1:3 sets. However, the 42-year-old then improved and got the third point for the German team against Samuel Kulczycki (3:1).
“You can tell Timo is behind in the competition. He’s been training for a while, but he still needs more matches. It’s also good for the rest of the tournament that he won the second game,” said German coach Lars Hielscher, who represents the missing national coach Jörg Roßkopf at this European Championship.
The knockout rounds of the European Team Championships begin on Thursday. The European champion qualifies for the team competition at the 2024 Olympic Games. The eight quarter-finalists and four further round of 16 will take part in the Team World Championships in February 2024 in South Korea.
The German men recently won the European Championship title three times in a row. However, the three top players Dang Qiu, Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Patrick Franziska are missing from this tournament.
Source: Stern
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