(by Steve Hopkins)

This is a Butterfly Favorite.  To set the stage, World No. 1 Ma Long entered the tournament as the top seed.  Timo Boll was not the top European qualifier – that honor went to Dimitrij Ovtcharov.  In fact, at the European Top 16 qualifying event, Shibaev had finished second and Gauzy had finished third – so Boll slipped in as the final European qualifier.  This was another time where Boll had been fighting to get back to form after a layoff due to injury.  Boll did not win the tournament – he fell to Ovtcharov in a tight Final.  But Boll took out Ma Long and Lin Gaoyuan on the way to that Final and this tournament was a launching point for a successful 2017 ahead of actually retaking the World No. 1 spot early in 2018.

The link is to the edited match on YouTube on Vovsav Bibibkin’s channel.

A message from Timo Boll: