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SV Werder Bremen has returned to the top of the Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) table for at least one night. At the start of the ninth match day on Friday, the Hanseatic team secured a 3-0 victory against Borussia Dortmund, their seventh win of the season.

“Why shouldn't we be able to achieve what Grünwettersbach achieved?” Evgeny Fadeev had asked before the match at SV Werder Bremen. The Borussia Dortmund coach was referring to ASC's 3-0 win over Bremen, which saw Werder lose their lead at the top of the table last Sunday. However, BVB failed to pull off the coup on Friday evening: Bremen secured their return to the top of the table with a 3-0 victory. With 14:4 points, the Hanseatic club is now ahead of Borussia Düsseldorf (12:4) again. The record champions will face TTC OE Clarity-Telefonie Systeme Bad Homburg tomorrow, Saturday.

Dortmund (6:12 points) played in Bremen without their two top stars, Kristian Karlsson and Anders Lind, with Adam Szudi moving up to position one. However, the 29-year-old couldn't get into the game against Irvin Bertrand: the Bremen player put in a brilliant performance and proved once again that he is a valuable addition to Werder. With a 3:0 victory over Szudi, Bertrand made it 2:0 for the hosts. It was the Frenchman's fourth victory in his fifth singles match for Werder; he also won twice in the doubles.

Gerassimenko and Falck celebrate in the fifth set

Kirill Gerassimenko started the evening with a 3:2 victory over Alberto Mino. Werder therefore led 2-0 at the break. “I haven't played that many matches this season. So it was a bit difficult to find my rhythm,” said Mino afterwards on the Dyn microphone. It was the 35-year-old's third singles match this season. “Of course I'm sad that I didn't win in the end. But I'll keep working and look ahead.”

After the break, Mattias Falck secured a clear victory for the hosts: the 2019 World Championship runner-up fought his way to a 3-2 win over Cedric Nuytinck, bringing the score to 3-0 for Werder. “He is a strong player and put a lot of pressure on me. I had to adjust to that,” Falck said of his match against Nuytinck, adding: “Of course, we were also a bit lucky today that Dortmund played without Anders Lind and Kristian Karlsson.”

Match day #9 at a glance

SV Werder Bremen – Borussia Dortmund 3:0
Kirill Gerassimenko – Alberto Mino 3:2 (11:9, 11:8, 9:11, 6:11, 11:9)
Irvin Bertrand – Adam Szudi 3:0 (11:8, 11:9, 11:7)
Mattias Falck – Cedric Nuytinck 3:2 (8:11, 13:11, 9:11, 11:6, 11:7)

TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen – TSV Bad Königshofen 3:1
Shunsuke Togami – Filip Zeljko 3:0 (11:7, 11:6, 12:10)
Andreas Levenko – Daniel Habesohn 3:1 (11:3, 7:11, 11:5, 11:8)
Tiago Abiodun – Bastian Steger 1:3 (11:9, 7:11, 5:11, 7:11)
Shunsuke Togami – Daniel Habesohn 3:2 (11:5, 11:13, 11:8, 8:11, 11:5)

Saturday, November 22
4 p.m.: TTC OE Clarity-Telefonie Systeme Bad Homburg – Borussia Düsseldorf

Sunday, November 23
2:00 p.m.: TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell – Post SV Mühlhausen
5:00 p.m.: TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau – 1. FC Saarbrücken TT
6:00 p.m.: TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt – ASC Grünwettersbach

Header photo: SV Werder Bremen's Kirill Gerassimenko