International

The glory of three medal winners at the World Team Championships in Busan, South Korea, has been shining through in the Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) since the last Sunday in February, even without any precious metal for the German team. Simon Gauzy (TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen) brought silver back from Asia for France's first final appearance in 27 years, and Taiwan's Chuang Chih-Yuan (TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell) and Feng Yi-Hsin (TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau) were able to celebrate bronze thanks to their team's 3-0 quarter-final win over Germany.

Apart from Germany, Portugal was also just one step short of the podium. Nevertheless, participation in the round of the best eight meant a ticket to the Olympic Games in Paris this summer for the former European champions led by Tiago Apolonia (ASV Grünwettersbach) as well as for the German team with the TTBL trio Benedikt Duda (TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt), Dang Qiu (Borussia Düsseldorf) and Patrick Franziska (1 FC Saarbrücken TT).

Six teams with TTBL professionals have already been eliminated in the round of 16 and must hope for the highest possible ranking in the March world rankings in order to participate in the Olympics. India (Manush Utpalbhai Shah/Bergneustadt, Sharath Kamal Achanta/Düsseldorf), Croatia (Filip Zeljko/TSV Bad Königshofen), Austria (Daniel Habesohn/Post SV Mühlhausen) will have to hope and tremble at the same time, Poland (Maciej Kubik/Grenzau, Samuel Kulczycki/Ochsenhausen), Romania (Ovidiu Ionescu/Mühlhausen, Eduard Ionescu/Saarbrücken) and Slovenia (Deni Kozul/Grünwettersbach, Darko Jorgic/Saarbrücken). Although Sweden, with Mattias Falck (Werder Bremen) and Anton Källberg (Düsseldorf), had also fallen by the wayside in the round of 16, the Scandinavians had already qualified for Paris before the World Cup tournament thanks to their European Championship title win in 2023.

The TTBL pros Samuel Walker (England/Grenzau), Wong Chung Ting (Hong Kong/Fulda-Maberzell) and Kirill Gerassimenko (Kazakhstan/Bremen) can only experience the French metropolis as tourists this summer. Their teams made it through the group stage in Busan, but then fell by the wayside in the intermediate round. Belgium, with its TTBL trio of Martin Allegro (Bad Königshofen), Adrien Rassenfosse (Bergneustadt) and Cedric Nuytinck (Saarbrücken), also had to bury all its Paris hopes after the preliminary round.

Gerassimenko with the best record of all World Championship participants

14 of the 26 TTBL aces in Busan achieved positive results. With outstanding 9:0 victories, Kirill Gerassimenko recorded the best result of all World Championship participants until his elimination for Kazakhstan. Slovenia's Europe Top 12 winner Darko Jorgic was hardly inferior with 8:0 victories. Fulda's Wong Chun Ting completed the trio of TTBL stars who remained undefeated in South Korea with 7-0 victories.

In the TTBL players' World Championship rankings, the new runner-up Simon Gauzy follows with six wins in eight matches up to his final duel with China's icon Ma Long (1:3). Veteran Tiago Apolonia can also point to the same difference with a 5:1 record. In the German team, Dang Qiu (as well as Ovidiu Ionescu for Romania) achieved five wins in seven matches and Patrick Franziska four wins in five appearances.

The results of the other World Championship players from TTBL clubs with positive match ratios: 3:1 matches: Källberg, Kulczycki. - 3:2: Falck, Kozul - 1:0: Duda, Shah.

Florian Manzke

Featured image above: Simon Gauzy (Photo: ITTF)