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33 TTBL Players in Action at the European Championships
The Tischtennis Bundesliga (TTBL) is once again celebrating European Championship gold. By winning the mixed doubles title alongside Nina Mittelham, Benedikt Duda (TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt) continued a streak of European champions playing in Germany’s top division across various competitions, which had been temporarily interrupted in 2024 after eight years.
Four other players from TTBL clubs collected five additional medals in the Balkans. Sweden’s Anton Källberg, who plays for league leaders Borussia Düsseldorf, won silver in both the singles and doubles events, the latter alongside his compatriot Kristian Karlsson of Borussia Dortmund. Källberg had defeated German top player Dang Qiu in an all-Düsseldorf semifinal, ending Qiu’s hopes of winning his second European singles title and leaving him with bronze.
Karlsson also claimed bronze in mixed doubles alongside Källberg’s sister Christina. Romania’s Eduardo Ionescu, who represents reigning treble winners 1. FC Saarbrücken-TT, also secured a place on the mixed doubles podium alongside Bernadette Szőcs.
The TTBL medal tally could have been even more impressive with a little more luck. Duda and Patrick Franziska (1. FC Saarbrücken-TT) narrowly missed out on a podium finish in singles after losing in the quarterfinals. In doubles, the pairings of Duda/Qiu and Adrien Rassenfosse/Martin Allegro (TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt/TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau) also fell short of reaching the semifinals. In mixed doubles, Joao Geraldo (Borussia Dortmund) was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
With three podium finishes between Källberg and Qiu, Düsseldorf made the strongest impression among the TTBL clubs at the European Championships. Borussia Dortmund can celebrate Karlsson’s two medals, while Bergneustadt and Saarbrücken can each take pride in a medal-winning performance by one of their players. In terms of numbers, Dortmund had the largest contingent of any TTBL club, with six players registered for the tournament. Werder Bremen was the only club without a representative at the European Championships.
A total of 29 TTBL players competed in the first main-draw round of the singles events in Slovenia. Five players from the league failed to progress through qualifying.
Before Ljubljana, the last TTBL players to return to their clubs as European champions were Källberg and his compatriot Mattias Falck (Werder Bremen, now Kristian Karlsson) in 2023, following Sweden’s victory at the European Team Championships on home soil in Malmö. In 2024, Kristian Karlsson joined TTC OE Clarity Telefonie from the same national team, while Spaniard Álvaro Robles signed for Saarbrücken at the start of the season, towards the end of his two-year reign as European mixed doubles champion.
Florian Manzke
Featured image: Benedikt Duda (BeLaSportfoto)
