Table tennis: Timo Paul flexes his muscles ahead of the World Table Tennis Championships

Table tennis star Odenwald Timo Boll travels to the USA for the World Championships with great expectations despite his advanced age. Above all, the Chinese team plays in its cards.

European champion Timo Boll of Erbach (Odenwald) optimistically flies to his first World Table Tennis Championships in the USA. “At the moment, the body is working. This is the most important thing. If it continues like this until the World Cup, I trust to do something,” the 40-year-old said at a press conference for the German association. Wednesday team. “The level is now very close. You cannot allow yourself to be weak. You have to see that you are playing well. Then everything is possible for me – from the medal to the last round.”

Paul already won the European singles title this year, but again missed the quarter-finals of the Olympic Games in Tokyo. After that, he decided not to participate in the European Team Championship and the 16th European Championship in order to focus entirely on his club Borussia Dusseldorf and the World Cup from November 23-29.

China leaves the best at home

In Houston, the singles record European champion is one of the medal favorites because the German team does not have third Olympian Dimitrij Ovcharov (ankle surgery) and because the strong Chinese without Olympic champion Ma Long will compete with world number one Xu Xin.

“I think they want to test their young players for the next Olympics,” said Paul of the Chinese. “But whether things really look better for the rest of the world remains to be seen. At least some of the young Chinese have not been completely consistent in their performance.” The favorite to win the world title is now Zhendong’s number one fan.

Those: sportschau.de