International

• Channel broadcasts games of the German national teams and medal matches
• German teams are among the medal candidates
• Men's national team can secure Olympic qualification

The best national table tennis teams in the world will kick off the 2024 Olympic year with the ITTF Team World Championships Finals in Busan, South Korea, starting on February 16. The men's and women's teams will compete for the title of World Team Champion until February 25. Dyn will exclusively broadcast all of the German national teams' matches, offering fans world-class table tennis. Due to the time difference of eight hours, all matches in the group phase will begin in the early morning or at midday German time. Dyn will start broadcasting 5 minutes before the start of each match. Dennis Heinemann, a top table tennis expert, will commentate on the matches.

The program of the World Team Championship group stage at Dyn

Friday, February 16th: 

· 09:00 a.m - Germany vs. USA (Men) 
· 12:00 a.m - Germany vs. Poland (Women) 

Saturday, February 17th: 

· 05:00 a.m - Germany vs. Mexico (Women) 
· 12:00 a.m - Germany vs. Saudi-Arabia (Men) 

Sunday, February 18th: 

· 05:00 a.m - Germany vs. Kazakhstan (Men) 
· 09:00 a.m - Germany vs. Nigeria (Women) 

Monday, February 19th: 

· 09:00 a.m - Germany vs. England (Men) 
· 12:00 a.m - Germany vs. Slovakia (Women) 

There are 40 teams in each of the men's and women's competitions, which are divided into eight groups of four teams each. In each match, a minimum of three and a maximum of five individual matches are played. In the end, the team that wins three singles matches first is the winner. The group winners qualify for the round of 16. Teams that reach the quarter-finals also qualify to take part in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. While the women, led by Germany's youth player of the year 2023 Annett Kaufmann and six-time double European champion Sabine Winter, have qualified as European champions, the men can follow suit by reaching the quarter-finals. The German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) is aiming for this goal as a minimum.

The German men will be traveling with a strong team led by
Dang Qui (world number 10) and Dimitrij Ovtcharov (world number 13).
13), who, as the number two seeds, have a good chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
quarter-finals. In the group phase, the Englishmen with their top player
top player Liam Pitchford are the strongest opponents. Otherwise, the Chinese
are once again the top favorites for the title. However, the world elite has broadened
teams from South Korea and Japan, the Swedes with Anton Kälberg, who plays in the German table tennis league, and the French with the brothers Alexis and Felix Lebrun are among the medal candidates.
medal candidates.  

Germany's strongest player, Yin Hang, is out due to a ruptured Achilles tendon. Nevertheless, the German women's team believes it has a good chance, especially if Nina Mittelham brings her good form from the
WTT tournament on the court in Busan. The biggest opponents are
are also the teams from Asia. The women's minimum goal is to win the
group victory and thus a place in the last sixteen.

The line-ups of the German teams:

Men 

· Dang Qiu (Borussia Düsseldorf) 
· Dimitrij Ovtcharov (TTC Neu-Ulm) 
· Patrick Franziska (1. FC Saarbrücken-TT) 
· Benedikt Duda (TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt) 
· Timo Boll (Borussia Düsseldorf) 

Women 

· Nina Mittelham (TTC Berlin Eastside) 
· Xiaona Shan (TTC Berlin Eastside) 
· Annett Kaufmann (SV Böblingen) 
· Sabine Winter (TSV Dachau) 
· Yuan Wan (TTC Weinheim) 

Alongside basketball, handball, volleyball and field hockey, table tennis is one of the five sports at Dyn. Since the 2023/2024 season, Dyn has been showing all games of the German Table Tennis League and the TTBL Cup live and on demand. 

Source: Press release Dyn
Featured image above: Dyn