Member Associations | 3 Mar 2011

National Championships: travel around the World for Timo BOLL

03/03/2011 – Dortmund (Germany), Beijing (China), Bamberg (Germany) – three towns, two countries, one week. The stress level for Timo BOLL is once again high these days. From the German Open in Dortmund where he finished as the runner-up, losing only to China’s Zhang JIKE in the final, he immediately flew to Beijing for the Euro-Asia All Stars series. On Wednesday evening he will step on a plane to Germany for the National Closed Championships in Bamberg in the county of Bavaria.

“Participating in the National Championships is always a question of honor for me,” Timo BOLL said. As the world’s number one he will of course be the favorite in Bamberg once again. Anyway last year’s winner was Christian SUSS, beating his doubles partner BOLL in the final. “We have a strong national team and so the internal competition is very strong, too,” explained BOLL.

Next to him and SUSS, Dimitrij OVTCHAROV, Patrick BAUM and Bastian STEGER will be his main rivals, but there are also youngsters like Patrick FRANZISKA who won the bronze medal at the U21 competition in Dortmund. “In every round there will be a tough opponent for me,” knows Timo BOLL. “I have to be in top shape to win the title”. It would be his tenth if he did. With this he would top the list and become the leading player in the statistics, right ahead the former stars Eberhard SCHOLER und Conny FREUNDORFER who have both won 9 national singles titles in their careers.

In the ladies’ competition Kristin SILBEREISEN is the holder. She won her first national singles title and beat Petrissa SOLJA in a tough final in Trier. Germany’s number one, WU Jiaduo, is still waiting for her first national gold medal. Within the Germany women’s team the competition is high as well. Established players like SILBEREISEN, WU, Elke SCHALL, Zhenqi BARTHEL and young guns like SOLJA and Sabine WINTER are ready to compete. However many others can cause surprises, like the defensive experts Irene IVANCAN and HAN Ying.

The title holders are:
Men’s singles: Christian SUSS
Women’s singles: Kristin SILBEREISEN
Men’s doubles: Patrick BAUM/Dimitrij OVTCHAROV
Women’s doubles: Kathrin MUHLBACH/Sabine WINTER

(by Simone HINZ, courtesy DTTB)

Photo: Christian SUSS (Photo Roscher)

EWT, EWT