Bundesliga

Post SV Mühlhausen's losing streak in the German Table Tennis League (TTBL) has come to an end. The Thuringians won 3:1 against the team of 1. FSV Mainz 05. The match winner was Steffen Mengel, who scored 3:1 against Luka Mladenovic and Li Yongyin respectively.

The evening started well for the trio from Mainz. Li Yongyin won the first set clearly against Daniel Habesohn, but failed to match his performance in the second. After this short setback, Li's confidence grew noticeably. With an impressive performance, he secured rounds three and four and put the 1st FSV in the lead (4:11, 11:7, 11:6, 11:4).

Mengel and Ionescu put Mühlhausen in the lead

The second singles match saw a thrilling duel between Luka Mladenovic and Steffen Mengel. Mengel prevailed by a razor-thin margin in the first two sets before Mladenovic won the third set by a two-point margin. Nevertheless, Mengel managed to keep the upper hand in the fourth set and took the victory (9:11, 10:12, 11:9, 4:11).

The match between Carlo Rossi and Ovidiu Ionescu was one-sided in favor of Ionescu. He dominated the match with precise attacks. Even though Rossi came close to winning the first and third set, it was Ionescu who finally put his team 2-1 ahead (10:12, 2:11, 9:11).

In the fourth and last singles match of the evening, Li Yongyin and Steffen Mengel met. In the first round, both players delivered a highly exciting exchange of blows, which finally ended in favor of Li.

But Mengel showed his class again and won the following three sets in a commanding manner (15:13, 6:11, 6:11, 4:11). After losing three singles against Boll, Jorgic and Apolonia, Mengel was able to contribute two important points to Mühlhausen's 3:1 overall victory.

Voices on the game:

Steffen Mengel:
We knew it would be a very difficult game in Mainz. Last season we went down 0:3, so we were very well prepared. Li is a new player in the league and we didn't really know him and how well he plays. We extra analyzed his games against Grünwettersbach.
I had to play very variable with my forehand because of his hard hitting and try a lot of things to take his forehand out of the game and I succeeded quite well today.

Tomasz Kasica:
The performance was absolutely fine. It was a pity that Luka didn't win the second set in the second singles. Then he might make it to the fifth set. But I have to say honestly that Mengel played unbelievable today and also deserved to win both singles. We will analyze the past matches now and we have also played some matches in the last weeks. That's why the short break from the matches is doing us a world of good. Of course, we know that Saarbrücken and Düsseldorf are strong opponents, where we are absolute outsiders. But we'll keep fighting and we still have our own game against Fulda in hand.

In the evening match of this matchday, TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt won 3:2 against ASV Grünwettersbach. The last match of the seventh matchday will be played on Monday, October 16, at 7 p.m. between 1. FC Saarbrücken TT and TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen.

Overview 07. Matchday

TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt – ASV Grünwettersbach 2:3
Benedikt Duda – Tiago Apolonia 2:3 (8:11, 10:12, 11:8, 11:5, 6:11)
Adrien Rassenfosse – Deni Kozul 3:0 (11:9, 11:9, 11:8)
Romain Ruiz – Ricardo Walther 0:3 (8:11, 10:12, 11:13)
Benedikt Duda – Deni Kozul 3:2 (10:12, 3:11, 11:7, 12:10, 11:3)
Adrien Rassenfosse/Romain Ruiz - Tiago Apolonia/Ricardo Walther 2:3 (12:10, 10:12, 15:13, 6:11, 9:11)

1. FSV Mainz 05 – Post SV Mühlhausen 1:3
Yongyin Li – Daniel Habesohn 3:1 (4:11, 11:7, 11:6, 11:4)
Luka Mladenovic – Steffen Mengel 1:3 (9:11, 10:12, 11:9, 4:11)
Carlo Rossi – Ovidiu Ionescu 0:3 (10:12, 2:11, 9:11)
Li Yongyin – Steffen Mengel 1:3 (15:13, 6:11, 6:11, 4:11)

TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell – TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau 2:3
Ruwen Filus – Samuel Walker 3:1 (11:3, 11:6, 9:11, 11:5)
Thibault Poret – Yi-Hsin Feng 1:3 (2:11, 11:8, 6:11, 7:11)
Fanbo Meng – Maciej Kubik 3:1 (11:3, 11:5, 6:11, 12:10)
Ruwen Filus – Yi-Hsin Feng 2:3 (12:10, 6:11, 15:17, 11:9, 7:11)
Meng/Poret – Kubik/Walter 0:3 (4:11, 6:11, 7:11)

SV Werder Bremen – TSV Bad Königshofen 3:0
Mattias Falck – Martin Allegro 3:1 (11:2, 9:11, 11:3, 11:9)
Kirill Gerassimenko – Filip Zeljko 3:0 (11:6, 11:5, 11:5)
Marcelo Aguirre – Bastian Steger 3:2 (11:8, 7:11, 11:5, 6:11, 13:11)

Monday, 16. Oktober
19 Uhr: 1. FC Saarbrücken TT – TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen

All TTBL matches are broadcast live on Dyn.
Article image above: Steffen Mengel from Post SV Mühlhausen (Photo: Habel)