Timo Boll stared dreamily into nothing. for a minute. Saturday in the Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle hadn’t even really started when he, the record European champion, had to take his break. Things weren’t looking good for him. “I was looking for solutions,” said the 41-year-old later about the first quarter-final of the day, “but I couldn’t find any.” The coaches didn’t even go to the gang for this match because his opponent was from their own team. And then everything happened very quickly. Boll was eliminated in less than half an hour, 7:11, 8:11, 6:11, 2:11. The gifted tactician was at a loss until the last ball, a topspin that he had just as little foreseen as many before.
The man against whom Timo Boll was so powerless, who constantly exerted pressure and made no mistakes, was called Dang Qiu. His 25-year-old team-mate from Borussia Düsseldorf. The native of Nürtingen, who wields the racket with the increasingly rare Asian penholder grip, made it into the semi-finals of the European Championships in Munich, ultimately as the only German, because later Dimitrij Ovtcharov was also eliminated in the quarter-finals against Kristian Karlsson from Sweden.
The spectators had held back during the team-internal duel, only clapping rhythmically. Later it sounded completely different again, more like on Friday, when they shook the old hall and roared their athletes to victory. So they continued on Sunday.
Exactly 30 years ago, national coach Jörg Roßkopf also won the title at a home European Championship
National coach Jörg Roßkopf was relaxed about the fact that there would only be one medal for the men of the German Table Tennis Association (DTTB): In his team there had been too many training failures recently, so you shouldn’t expect too much. He probably already suspected that Qiu would definitely not stay at bronze, exactly 30 years after Roßkopf himself won his European Championship title in Stuttgart. And indeed: A few hours later, Qiu made it into the final on Sunday against Mattias Falck from Sweden, the 2019 World Cup runner-up, confidently in 4:1 sets. Falck hadn’t found any solutions either – and he shouldn’t be the last to do so.
Dima, Bine, Nina, Nana – the nicknames of the Germans did not usually present the Munich audience with too great an intellectual challenge to modify the chant “Auf geht’s, Timo, auf geht’s”, which has been tried and tested for decades – which helped most of the addressees enormously on the way to medals. Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Sabine Winter, Nina Mitttelham and Shan Xiaona are behind these two silvers. For Qiu, who doesn’t quite fit into the scheme phonetically, you’ll have to practice a little more. During the semifinals, some fans decided that “Dang Qiu” was also two syllables – others knew about his nickname “Dangi”. Anyway, the chants came. And the further practice should be worthwhile, because in Munich he clearly showed that Qiu is by no means inadvertently scratching the top ten in the world (which he even briefly reached). Which is ultimately not only a good thing for German table tennis, but also for Boll himself, who feels challenged and encouraged by it.
Qiu is a “table tennis maniac,” says Boll, someone who doesn’t think about anything else all day
Qiu is currently at position 13 in the world. Someone who has nothing but table tennis on his mind all day, a “table tennis madman”, as Boll later said – to add with a grin that he used to be the exact opposite: “I’m at home and haven’t thought about table tennis at all anymore.”
Before Qiu had his biggest performance to date on Sunday, tears rolled down the hall. First with Nina Mittelham, the 25-year-old from Willich, then also with Sofia Polcanova from Austria, her opponent in the women’s final. Mittelham suffered a shoulder injury that forced her to retire after two sets. Her opponent didn’t really know what to do with her feelings either, so she didn’t want to win. The day before, Polcanova had just about won 12:10 in the seventh set against the enthusiastically cheered local hero Sabine Winter, who, like Shan Xiaona, won bronze for the DTTB.
Tears after the end: Nina Mittelham (front) had to retire due to injury in the women’s singles final. Sofia Polcanova from Austria is the new European Champion.
(Photo: Sebastian Widmann/Getty Images)
The audience was all the hotter for Qiu, who also started furiously with a 5:1 lead – but the final opponent Darko Jorgic, 24, also has big goals, not only in Europe. When the Slovene, who now plays for Saarbrücken, started his first job in the German Bundesliga at TSV Bad Königshofen, at the age of 18 and with a backhand that requires a gun license, he simply stated his goal: He wanted to be number one in the world. Brave outside of China. He is currently eighth in the world rankings, so there is still a long way to go, but a European title was now within reach. In the semifinals, he benefited from the fact that Karlsson got his thumb stuck on the plate and had to retire when the set was tied 2-2. But against Qiu, whom he also knows from the league, Jorgic apparently had an idea. He turned the first set, seemed to hurry in the second – then Qiu showed his nerves of steel, closed up again, used his fourth set ball to equalize – and then never let himself be diverted from his path a second time. With 4:1 he unstoppably won the last set 11:2, like against Boll. Whoever throws him out of the tournament must also win the title, he said later. The spectators laughed – and had their happy ending.
They had already received some nice messages beforehand. From Boll, for example, that he will by no means stop, but is looking forward to the next training session with Dang Qiu. Von Winter that the days in Munich were “incredibly fun” and thanked her for this unique experience. And von Ovtcharov: “This event,” he assured, “is the best thing I’ve experienced in table tennis in many years.” He, the 2021 Olympic bronze medalist.