Table Tennis Championships
EM-Aus for Ovtcharov and Boll – Mittelham in the women’s final
Timo Boll (r) congratulates Dang Qiu on the victory. photo
© Marius Becker/dpa
The German veterans Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov have to give up hopes for gold at the table tennis championships. On the other hand, Nina Mittelham makes it into the final.
Record European champion Timo Boll was stopped abruptly at the title fights in Munich on the way to his ninth individual gold.
The exceptional 41-year-old player unexpectedly lost the quarter-finals against his teammate and Düsseldorf club colleague Dang Qiu 0:4. After his 4-0 win the day before in the round of 16 against the Slovakian Wang Yang, Boll was eliminated from the European Championship after just 28 minutes.
Ovtcharov is eliminated in the quarterfinals
Then the world ranking ninth Dimitrij Ovtcharov from TTC Neu-Ulm also missed the semifinals. The Olympic bronze medalist lost in the quarterfinals against Sweden’s Kristian Karlsson 2:4 in 53 minutes.
“Unfortunately, it was a very obvious matter. He played great and deserved to win. I would have liked to have made it closer in front of this great crowd,” admitted Boll. However, the end of a career is not associated with this defeat, the old master asserted. “Even if it always sounds like it: I’m not giving up yet. Such a game is tough when it ends so clearly, but I still have a lot of fun playing table tennis. I’m already looking forward to the next training session against Dang,” emphasized he.
Mittelham in the final
In the women’s category, however, Nina Mittelham made it to the final. The 25-year-old from TTC Berlin Eastside beat Shan Xiaona from Düsseldorf 4-1 in the semifinals on Saturday. After a changeable start, Mittelham pulled away and also overcame a brief phase of weakness in the fifth set. With the third match point, she made everything clear.
Mittelham will face Sofia Polcanova in the final on Sunday. The Austrian defeated Sabine Winter in a close match 4:3. The 29-year-old Winter from TSV Schwabhausen was already 1: 3 sets behind, but still fought her way into the decisive round. There, however, she made too many slight mistakes. Like Shan Xiaona, Winter gets the bronze medal. Third place will not be played at the European Championship.