Other Events | 27 Mar 2014

Injured Timo BOLL withdraws from German Open

The Czech Republic’s David REITSPIES beat the second highest World ranked player on duty in the qualification stage of the Men’s Singles event at the GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour, German Open. He did it in six games, but it was insufficient for REITSPIE

The Czech Republic’s David REITSPIES beat the second highest World ranked player on duty in the qualification stage of the Men’s Singles event at the GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour, German Open. He did it in six games, but it was insufficient for REITSPIES to progress to the next stage of the Event. He concluded the qualifications on third position in his Group. Frederick JOST of Germany had beaten David REITSPIES one match earlier to book the second position.

David REITSPIES, earlier in the year in January had emerged successful in the Portuguese city of Vilanova de Gaia at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games World Qualification Tournament.

There were also surprise defeats for Simon GAUZY of France, the third highest World ranked player in the qualification stage of the Men’s Singles event and also for Spain’s HE Zhiwen, the seventh highest. In Magdeburg Simon Gauzy was beaten by Poland’s Pawel FERTIKOWSKI (11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 12-14, 11-7, 14-12); HE Zhiwen was defeated by Sweden’s Mattias KARLSSON (11-4, 11-3, 8-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-7). Pawel FERTIKOWSKI who beat Slovenia’s Jan Zibrat (11-7, 12-10, 11-9, 10-12, 11-5) on the opening day of play duly topped the group as did Mattias KARLSSON. On day one he had defeated Borna KOVAC of the Netherlands (11-2, Austria’s Daniel HABESOHN and Stefan FEGERL, Sweden’s Pär GERELL, all finished in first places in their group and reserved main draw berths.

One name is missing in the main draw. Timo BOLL announced his withdrawal today. “In addition to my strained right thigh which made me cancel my Bundesleague matches for my club Düsseldorf in Bremen on Monday, I additionally caught a painful instability in my back. Altogether it’s forcing me to cancel my participation in the German Open. Despite extensive treatment measures, it has not improved, and in this state I cannot compete in Magdeburg. I regret that very much, because I know that my German fans have been looking forward to seeing me play in Magdeburg. Most I regret it myself, because I was in excellent physical condition and had been looking forward to the confrontation especially with Chinese competitors and my compatriot Dima OVTCHAROV. I hope now that I’ll quickly become fit again and start to prepare first of all for the play-off semi finals in Bundesleague and then of course for the World Team Championships in Tokyo,” stated BOLL.