Table Tennis World Cup
“Better here than in Paris”: German team misses medal
At the World Team Championships in South Korea, Ovtcharov and the German team were eliminated in the quarterfinals. photo
© Marius Becker/dpa
For the German table tennis stars, the team world championship in South Korea is already over in the quarter-finals. The dream of the third World Cup final in a row ends surprisingly clearly.
“It feels like we haven’t experienced a defeat like this in the last 15 years. And it’s really bitter that it happens at a World Cup. But it would rather happen here than in Paris,” said Ovtcharov, referring to the Olympic Games in July and August . The German men had already qualified for the most important competition of the year by finishing in the top eight in Busan before the game against Taiwan.
Individual European champion Dang Qiu lost in five sets at the start on Friday against 42-year-old Bundesliga professional Chuang Chih-Yuan from TTC Fulda-Maberzell. Ovtcharov then gave up a 2-0 set lead against Taiwan’s top player Lin Yun-Ju (2:3). In the third match, Franziska lost to 19-year-old Kao Cheng-Jui in 1:3 sets.
“0:3 sounds really disastrous. But we weren’t far away today,” said Ovtcharov. “This experience grounds us and will help us go into the tournament in Paris even sharper.”
At the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments and at the 2021 Olympic Games, national coach Jörg Roßkopf’s team reached the final against China. This time, however, a lot went wrong from the start. Record European champion Timo Boll had to cancel his World Cup participation at short notice due to an inflammation in his eye. Former world number one Ovtcharov had his rackets, passport and money stolen while traveling to Busan.
“There are now more than just three teams fighting for the medals,” said German sports director Richard Prause. “Taiwan is now part of it. France is part of it. But Germany is also part of it.”