(by Steve Hopkins, photo TTBL)
A sold-out arena with 5,000 fans showed up in Frankfurt to watch Borussia Dusseldorf battle Liebherr Ochsenhausen in the German League (TTBL) Final – not just the final TTBL match of the season, but likely Timo Boll’s last professional match in Germany.
While Boll’s retirement from table tennis is among the biggest story lines, and perhaps a more important headline than the TTBL Final, Boll was not the only retirement celebrated on this day. Ochsenhausen is losing both of its long-time stars as both Hugo Calderano and Simon Gauzy have announced they are leaving the team.
In the first match today, Hugo Calderano defeated Timo Boll 3-2, including a tight 11-9 final game. This gave Ochsenhausen an early lead. Next up was Simon Gauzy for Ochsenhausen against Dang Qiu for Dusseldorf and after yet another tight 3-2 match it was Qiu winning and evening the match 1-1.
Shunsuke Togami then dominated Anton Kallberg in the match between No. 3 players – giving Ochsenhausen the lead again. The last singles match was a dominant performance by Dang Qiu, finishing off Hugo Calderano 3-0. After this win, the match was tied 2-2 and the final match was doubles between Shunsuke Togami /Simon Gauzy and Anton Kallberg/Timo Boll. In the final doubles match, Togami/Gauzy dominated 3-0, sealing the victory for Ochsenhausen.
Ochsenhausen has won the TTBL for the fifth time. The squad will see a rebuild before the start of the next season, and the team will be missing two of its strongest (as Calderano and Gauzy depart). But a positive note for Ochsenhausen is that their third player, Togami, was the strongest player on their team today – winning his singles match and his doubles match 3-0 and 3-0. For Dusseldorf, they will lose Boll – but he is their third player so the strength of the team remains. Qiu managed to win both of his Singles matches, so like Togami, he was the strongest player on his team today – and like Togami, he’ll be back next season.
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