Fulda (pf) – Eliminated the defending champion, won the hearts of hundreds of fans and made them happy: The table tennis team of TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell also kept the upper hand in the cup round of 16 against record champion Borussia Düsseldorf, beating the Westphalians 3:1 on Saturday evening in the Hubtex Arena. Even with Dang Qiu in the squad, Düsseldorf was beaten – the Maberzell team has thus at least this year overtaken the long-standing figurehead in table tennis Germany in direct duels and are in the quarter-finals.
Spectators in the Hubtex Arena in Fulda experienced top-class sport of a historic nature on Saturday evening. The opening singles match in particular was more than impressive: Dimitrij Ovtcharov on the Maberzell side and Timo Boll on the Düsseldorf side were the two absolute figureheads of German table tennis in recent years, with countless titles and hearts won by the public united at the table in Fulda.
It was the duel that the fans had been waiting for and that did not happen a few weeks ago in the Bundesliga match that ended 3:0 for Maberzell. And the two offered a showdown of the highest quality: three sets went the full distance, one even into extra time. For half an hour, “Dima” and Boll hit each other with balls, bringing the hall to a boil. Ovtcharov showed nerves of steel, fought back after Boll tied the set, turned the third set from 7:9 to 11:9 and finally took home the first point for the TTC. It was possibly the last meeting between the two at national club level – unless there is another showdown in the Bundesliga playoffs, which are more possible than ever for Maberzell and are actually a must with this line-up.
This was followed by the singles match between Dang Qiu, who Düsseldorf had sorely missed in the Bundesliga duel, and Maberzell’s Cheng-Jui Kao: Both know each other well, having played against each other in the semi-finals at WTT Champions in Macao just a few days ago, which Qiu won 4-2. And Kao took revenge this time in his new territory in Fulda: with speed, cheeky body language and an iron will, he, number 23 in the world, beat Dang Qiu, number 12 in the rankings, 3-0. Two sets had to go into extra time, and in the third Kao was even behind 2-5 and equalized at 5-5 before the first match point landed.
After the break, the most obvious singles match of the evening followed: Fan Bo Meng faced Anton Källberg, but had little to counter the strong Swede. The first set was still on a knife edge, but after 10:10 Meng was unable to land the final blow, and the second set was more than clear at 2:11. After that, the Fulda youngster pulled himself together again, held his own until 8:8, before Källberg sealed the deal.
The top singles match ultimately deserved its name, as Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Dang Qiu fought it out over five sets in the end – the Maberzell player took the lead and led 2-0, but Qiu was not above two defeats in one evening, which has probably not happened very often, and fought back. The 2-2 was a tough test for the spectators’ nerves, from complete ecstasy to a silence in which a pin could have been heard. Ovtcharov became a crowd favorite, if he wasn’t already – he won the fifth set and ensured that Düsseldorf is not in the Final Four for the first time in many years. The Maberzell players, on the other hand, are in the quarterfinals and are now probably the favorites – no matter who they play against. “Düsseldorf will not win the cup again, that has been decided since today,” rejoiced Maberzell’s president Stefan Frauenholz, who was unstoppable: “We have now won three games against Düsseldorf in a row in 2024, but for the first time in history it was a knockout game. Up until now, these were Bundesliga games where there was not much at stake, today they were there with the full line-up.” The draw for the quarter-finals is now on Tuesday, Frauenholz noted that due to the seeding list, the TTC will not play against Ochsenhausen or Saarbrücken, which he has chosen as co-favorites alongside Maberzell.
TTC Rhönsprudel Fulda-Maberzell – Borussia Düsseldorf 3:1
Dimitrij Ovtcharov – Timo Boll 3:1 (11:9, 10:12, 11:9, 11:9)
Cheng-Jui Kao – Dang Qiu 3:0 (13:11, 11:5, 12:10)
Fan Bo Meng – Anton Källberg 0:3 (10:12, 2.11, 8:11)
Dimitrij Ovtcharov – Dang Qiu 3:2 (11:9, 12:10, 8:11, 7:11, 11:7)
