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TTBL fans were able to vote for their “TTBL Player of the Month April” in a social media poll. After the four play-off semi-finals and several tournaments at international level, seven candidates stood for election based on strong performances (in alphabetical order): Timo Boll (Borussia Düsseldorf), Hugo Calderano (TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen), Simon Gauzy (Ochsenhausen), Anton Källberg (Düsseldorf), Dang Qiu (Düsseldorf), Shunsuke Togami (Ochsenhausen) and Jin Ueda (TSV Bad Königshofen). World Cup winner Calderano received the most votes.

Rarely has a player dominated the events and headlines in the German Table Tennis League (TTBL) in as many ways as Hugo Calderano did last April. First the unexpected announcement of his departure from TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen, then a flawless record in the play-off semi-finals when the cup winners made it to the Liebherr TTBL final and, to top it all off, the sensational triumph at the World Cup in Macau.

Calderano has certainly finally overcome the lowest point of his sporting life with the biggest international individual success of his career: Less than a year ago, the Brazilian seemed devastated after his hopes of winning his first Olympic medal in Paris at the third attempt since 2016 remained unfulfilled once again with defeats in the semi-final against Sweden's Truls Möregardh and in the bronze medal match against local Frenchman Felix Lebrun.

“The title means a lot to me,” said the first winner of the third most important competition at world level from the American continent, ”especially after the Olympics. I was still completely down in March, but I kept working and believing in myself.”

This belief really did move mountains in Macao. Calderano won like a hussar against the entire top trio in the world rankings at the time, beating Tomokazu Harimoto and - after falling behind - Wang Chuqin and Lin Shidong. As a reward, the 28-year-old climbed to third place in the rankings himself and was thus able to celebrate the best ranking of his career to date.

This makes Calderano's departure from Ochsenhausen all the more painful. The South American wants to concentrate solely on his international career in the future and found great understanding from the TTF. “We were aware that Hugo would not be able to continue in this way due to his busy schedule. As difficult as it is for us to have to let go of a great leading player and person, we are also convinced that this step is the right one for him,” said club president Kristijan Pejinovic after Calderano's last home game for the Upper Swabians in the first play-off semi-final against Champions League winners 1. FC Saarbrücken TT.

Also because the multiple South American champion was successful in the semifinals against Yuto Muramatsu and Patrick Franziska after his strong 17:1 record in the TTBL main round, his team can give its long-time top player the best possible farewell present in the Liebherr TTBL final on June 15 in Frankfurt against Borussia Düsseldorf.

The prospect of the “double” is a great motivation for Calderano even before the trip to the World Championships in Doha (May 17-25): “For me, the championship with Ochsenhausen is also already in focus.”

Florian Manzke