The German national table tennis team travels to China for the World Cup without their biggest names. That the DTTB men play their way into the final against the hosts is a huge surprise. A sworn trio wins two thrillers. Now is the chance for the ultimate sensation.
Germany versus China - that was the final of the Olympic Games last year. And at the 2018 World Cup in Sweden. On Sunday there will be another rematch at the Table Tennis Team World Championships in Chengdu, but this time the conditions are completely different. Because the German team marched into this final in the city of 20 million inhabitants in western China with an absolute outsider cast: Dang Qiu, Benedikt Duda and Kay Stumper instead of Timo Boll, who was decorated with titles but was missing at this World Cup, Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Patrick Franziska.
One day after the great race to catch up against France, the surprise German team won the next table tennis thriller in the semi-finals on Saturday, beating South Korea 3-2. After a total playing time of more than three and a half hours, Duda beat the former World Cup bronze medalist An Jaehyun in the decisive fifth game in 3:1 sets.
"It was an amazing game," said national coach Jörg Roßkopf. "It's a pleasure to play in a World Cup final, even if many, many at home in Germany wouldn't have believed us capable of it. You can see what an irrepressible will means. That we came back from a 1-2 deficit , also shows what teamwork and team spirit are worth."
As in the 3-2 win after the 2-0 defeat against France, the 28-year-old Duda was the decisive man against South Korea. The world number 36. from Bundesliga club TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt initially gave Roßkopf's team a 1-0 lead when he defeated South Korea's top player Jang Woojin in 3-1 sets. When the score was 2-2, he also beat 22-year-old An Jaehyun for the first time in his career. "I played very well today and was just there to the point. I'm very happy about that, I have to let that sink in first," said Duda.
After the five-set defeat of 19-year-old World Cup debutant Kay Stumper (Borussia Düsseldorf) against Cho Seungmin, the German team was 1-2 behind. But single European champion Dang Qiu (Borussia Düsseldorf), who had lost his first game against An Jaehyun 1:3, won the duel between the two leading players with Jang Woojin (3:1) under great pressure and thus forced the decisive fifth game. "The special thing about this tournament is that if Bene loses or Dang loses or I lose, there is always someone else who performs particularly well," said Stumper. "We always catch each other up."
But it will be particularly difficult against China. The Germans lost against the table tennis superiority in the two previous big finals with 0:3. And while Boll, Ovtcharov (both training deficits) and Franziska, who has just become a father for the first time, are not present at the European Champion, the World Cup host and defending champion still has the 1a cast at the table: World Champion Fan Zhendong, Olympic Champion Ma Long and the Mixed world champion Wang Chuqin. The third in the world rankings, Liang Jingkun, has so far only been a substitute in this team.
In the 3-2 semi-final win against Japan, the Chinese had a harder time than expected as Japan's one-time prodigy Tomokazu Harimoto defeated Wang Chuqin and Fan Zhendong. Nevertheless, Duda knows: "Of course it will be the hardest game of all. But we will give everything again and hope for a sensation."
