(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTF World)
Most of the German squads have now played three matches – and only two teams remain undefeated: Borussia Dusseldorf and TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen. For the talented Borussia Dusseldorf team, they have dominated every match winning 3-0, 3-0, and 3-0. Ochsenhausen has spread out 2 losses over their three wins, so their cumulative result is 9-2 placing them firmly in second place. Saarbrucken is in third (2-1) and Werder Bremen is in fourth (also 2-1).
At this point, six players are 3-0 and one player leads the field at 4-0. Yi Hsin Feng, a fast-rising 18 year old Taiwanese player is 4-0 for Zugbrucke Grenzau. The five 3-0 players are USA’s Kanak Jha, Simon Gauzy, Anton Kallberg, Alvaro Robles, and Kay Stumper.
Two groupings remain for this week – matches on Monday between Muhlhausen and Mainz and Neu Ulm and Grenzau. When Neu Ulm and Grenzau face each other, Dimitrij Ovtcharov (currently 2-0) will be hoping to join the singles leaders (at 3-0 or 4-0) and his likely match-up with Yi Hsin Feng should be a crowd pleaser.
Next up for Kanak Jha Ochsenhausen is FSV Mainz. Mainz is currently 0-2 and at the the bottom in the rankings.
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