(by Steve Hopkins)
The TTBL Season is coming to a close as the final four German League teams have been battling for a seat in the Final. This weekend, Borussia Dusseldorf punched its ticket forward with its second win over TSV Bad Konigshofen. All wins are significant for professional teams, but this is a rare situations where the retirement of Timo Boll may be a bigger story than the progression of the Dusseldorf squad that he has led for decades.
This weekend marked Timo Boll’s last home game at Borussia Dusseldorf’s stadium. And while Boll’s role has been diminished this year, the retiring star needed to win two matches for his team to advance. Boll did just that, defeating Konigshofen’s Filip Zeljko 3-2 in singles to give his team a 2-1 lead, and then teaming with Anton Kallberg for a 3-0 win over Konigshofen’s Allegro and Steger to secure the final point and the win. Teammate Dang Qiu was 1-1, defeating Steger but losing to Jin Ueda. And Anton Kallberg lost his singles match as well, falling to Jin Ueda. However, Boll was able to lift his teammates by winning the third singles, and adding the deciding doubles win as well.
Dusseldorf now waits for the winner of the Saarbrucken/Ochsenhausen Semifinal. Ochsenhausen current leads 1-0 after winning 3-0 on Sunda. All three of Ochsenhausen’s players are performing at their peak and it showed as Hugo Calderano beat Yuto Muramatsu 3-0, Shunsuke Togami defeated Darko Jorgic 3-1, and Simon Gauzy beat Patrick Franziska 3-1. Saarbrucken has often played best at the end of the season with Jorgic and Franziska dominating in the biggest moments, but this year the script may have changed as both Calderano and Gauzy have gotten hot playing in international events. The series is home-home, so a venue change will occur for Wednesday’s match where Saarbrucken will compete at home. The winner of the Semifinal will be decided on Wednesday.
The Finals will be played in Frankfurt on June 15. Regardless of the match-up, those matches should be exciting. The headlines are just waiting for the matches to be played. Will the last story line of the season be focused on Timo Boll’s heroics in his last TTBL Finals? Will that headline turn on a comeback from Saarbrucken and the two stars who often play best when their back is against the proverbial wall? Or will this be the last run for Ochsenhausen’s main stars Calderano and Gauzy who are both leaving the squad at the end of the season.
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