The preparation was turbulent. Germany's table tennis team had no problem with outsiders America at the World Cup in South Korea.
Appropriate start: Patrick Francisca and co. They defeated America easily.
IMAGO/MaJo
The German national table tennis team had a successful start to the World Team Championships in South Korea without Timo Pol. DTTB won their one-sided opener against USA on Friday 3-0.
Patrick Francesca (against Zhishan Liang) or Tang Qiu (against Nikhil Kumar) or Dmitrij Ovtsarov (against Nandan Naresh) did not give a single penalty. Other opponents in the preliminary round include Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and England.
It was really unfortunate that we could only become world champions.
From Germany's point of view, the few days leading up to the start of the World Cup in Busan have been very turbulent. Reigning European champion Paul is in Germany receiving treatment for eye inflammation and canceled the World Cup altogether on Friday.
Former world number one Ovcharov's passport, wallet and hand luggage containing table tennis rackets were stolen on his way to the airport.
“It was very unfortunate that we could only really become world champions. Or Olympic champions,” Ovtcharov said. Germany have lost five of their last six World Cup finals to China. The first goal in Busan is to reach the quarterfinals to qualify for the team competition at the Olympic Games in Paris.
“Amateur coffee fan. Travel guru. Subtly charming zombie maven. Incurable reader. Web fanatic.”
More Stories
Martin Schulz: “I want more courage for the United States of Europe”
US reports first case of H5N1 bird flu virus in pigs
Polestar fears US sales ban