Member Associations | 17 May 2022

Borussia Düsseldorf and 1. FC Saarbrücken TT in the play-off final of the Bundesliga

Photo: Jörg Fuhrmann, Revierfoto

Borussia Düsseldorf and 1. FC Saarbrücken TT won their second play-off duel in the Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) and thus the best-of-3 semi-final series. The two teams now will be fighting for the German championship in the Liebherr TTBL finals in the Ballsporthalle in Frankfurt on June 11th.

Düsseldorf prevailed 3-0 against TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell, while Saarbrücken at the same time scored 3-0 at Post SV Mühlhausen. In the previous week, both teams had already won the first leg. For FCS it is the fourth entry in the Liebherr TTBL final in a row, Borussia is in the final for the second time in a row. Last year Düsseldorf had asserted itself with 3:1.

“We are happy to be in the final again. I'm very proud of the whole team. Now we're stepping on the gas and will try to make the little sensation perfect against Düsseldorf," said Saarbrücken's Patrick FRANZISKA after they had made it into the final.

"It's always very difficult to play in Mühlhausen. But I think we deserved to win in the end.” Düsseldorf's Dang QIU explained: “Both games against Fulda were hard-fought. The fact that we still won last week was a huge thing and important for our starting position today. But today we started from scratch again, so we wanted to step on the gas right from the start and not fall behind again. Luckily we managed to do that. We're going to take a few days off now and then put our full focus on the finale."

In the previous week, Düsseldorf had struggled against Fulda and fought a 3-2 lead after being 2-0 down. The second duel, on the other hand, was relatively unambiguous, thanks in particular to Anton KÄLLBERG'S success in the opening round, who once again prevailed against Alexandre CASSIN. With the French in second place, the guests had hoped for a break, but KÄLLBERG won 3-1 (11-6, 6-11, 12-10, 11-6). The sticking point was the third set: CASSIN initially led and secured a set ball 10:9, but KÄLLBERG defended it, took the 12:10 and then had everything under control in the fourth set.

Then Timo BOLL extended the lead to 2:0. The 41-year-old, who lost 2-3 to Fan Bo MENG last week, was in much better shape against Quadri ARUNA and won 3-1 (11-6, 7-11, 11-6, 11-1). 9). Dang QIU finally got the third point, winning three hard-fought sets against Meng and using his first match point to make it 3-0 (11-9, 12-10, 11-9).

Saarbrücken also won 3-0 in Mühlhausen, repeating the success of the previous week. Here, too, the first duel was the key: to loud cheers from the crowd in the sold-out Postsporthalle, Ovidiu IONESCU took a 2-0 lead against Darko JORGIC and made his team dream of taking the lead. JORGIC, however, kept his nerve, initially lost five set balls in the third set, but then used the sixth to make it 1: 2 - and had everything under control in the following sets. In the end, the Saarbrücken player won 3: 2 (9:11, 8:11, 13:11, 11:4, 11:6) and thus got the break for the guests.

Patrick FRANZISKA then increased it with his 3:0 (11:8, 11:6, 11:8) against Irvin BERTRAND, so that only one win separated FCS from entering the Liebherr TTBL final. And Tomas POLANSKY got it after the break: The 23-year-old Czech stopped Daniel HABESOHN'S comeback attempt in the fifth set with a time-out and a few rallies later secured two match points, which he scored 3: 2 (9:11, 11:9, 11:8, 3:11, 11:9) and thus led to Saarbrücken's 3-0 success.