(by Steve Hopkins)

The TTBL German Cup (Pokal Final) is a mid-year tournament that starts with 12 teams and ends with a single-day “final four” event where the Semifinals and Finals are played on the same day.  This year, the final four teams were FC Saarbrucken TT, TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen, TTC RhonSprudel Fulda-Maberzell, and TTC OE Clarity-Telefonie Bad Homburg.

In the first Semifinal it was Saarbrucken against Ochsenhausen.  Ochsenhausen’s Togami faced off against Jorgic, and Togami started fast winning the first two games with close scores before dominating the third game 11-1.  Fan Zhendong put Saarbrucken on the board with a 3-1 win over Abiodun. Jorgic beat Charita 3-1, and then Fan topped Togami 3-1 to seal the match for Saarbrucken.

The second Semifinal was Fulda against Bad Homburg.  Ovtcharov had a strong initial showing, winning 3-0 over Yokotani to give Fulda the early lead.  Filus then defeated Andras 3-0 to extend the lead to 2-0 for Fulda.  Ban defeated Groth 3-1 to give Bad Homburg a win – and to cut the lead in half.  It looked like Filus would shut the door on the match as he went up 2-0 over  Yokotani, but Yokotani won 3 straight sending the match into Doubles.   In Doubles, it was Ban/Andras against Ovtcharov/Meng, and the finish was tight.  Fulda won the first game, just to lose the next two.  But then Ovtcharov and Meng fought back – coming from behind in the fourth game to tie the score, and then dominating the final game to secure the 3-2 win and Fulda’s spot in the Final.

The Final between Fulda and Saarbrucken turned out to be one-sided.  Fan Zhendong defeated Dimitri Ovtcharov 3-0 to give Saarbrucken the early lead.  Filus then mounted a comeback win over Patrick Franziska to win 13-11 in the fifth to even the match score at 1-1.  Jorgic easily topped Meng to give Saarbrucken a 2-1 lead.  That left Fan against Filus – a match that Fan won 3-0 to give Saarbrucken the win.

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