The 37-year-old 12-time champion of Germany will play last time for the national title this weekend (March 1-3) in Wetzlar. BOLL: “Participating in the German Championships has always been an honour and an obligation for me”
The upcoming German National Championships scheduled for this weekend in the city of Wetzlar will be special one as 12-time national champion Timo BOLL announced his last participation on this event.
“It’s my farewell to the national title fights my last participation in this tournament which was always very important to me. Participating in the German Championships has always been an honour and an obligation for me ” stated actual world no. 5 Timo BOLL for tischtennis.de.
Of course this is not the end of Timo BOLL career as 37-year-old (actually his birthday comes on March 8th) still has many big goals on both stages internationally and as a member of the reigning TTCLM champion Borussia Dusseldorf. For sure his presence at the 87th German National Championships will mark the end of one era of this prestigious event. In the rest of his career BOLL will be focused on several big events including LIEBHERR 2019 ITTF World Championships in Budapest and 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
“The ITTF demands more and more from us. To be well placed in the world rankings you have to play so many tournaments. In addition I have many goals with Borussia Dusseldorf… I want to play as long as I enjoy and the body can cope. That may take a few more years” stated current European champion BOLL who has three more years of his contract with the best German club.
Defending champion Timo BOLL is the clear favourite at the German National Championships which to be held at Rittal Arena (5 000) bearing in mind that 2013 champion and actual Europe Top 16 Cup winner Dimitrij OVTCHAROV cancelled his participation. HAN Ying will defend her title in the Women Singles event faced with few big challengers including recent Europe Top 16 Cup champion Petrissa SOLJA. Actual men’s world no. 15 Patrick FRANZISKA could be the hardest obstacle on BOLL’s way to the 13th title (first one he took in 1998).
On the eve of the National Championships German Table Tennis Association has announced Timo BOLL and Kristin LANG as the national players of the 2018 year.
