April 13, 2009
Preview: World Table Tennis Championships
World Table Tennis Championships
in Japan (April 28th to May 5th)
Boll´s Dream of a Medal
Timo Boll
Courtesy of Butterfly World
Timo Boll has a dream: When the victory ceremony takes place on the 5th of May at the Single World Championships in the Men Singles in Yokohama the number four of the World Ranking List would like to be on the podium for the first time in his career. The 28 year old Butterfly is the most dangerous challenger of the dominating Chinese who won five titles at the last World Championships. In the women event there are two Butterfly athletes, the number one of the World Ranking List Zhang Yining and the defending Champion Guo Yue, who will be fighting for the Gold Medal.
If the Tamasu representatives are able to repeat or even improve on the excellent results of the year 2007 with three Gold Medals, one Silver Medal and three Bronze Medals in five events is largely depending on the performance of China’s women in the Yokohama Arena. While Europe’s women can only take the ambitious role of outsiders against their Asian colleagues and China’s Butterfly duo, Timo Boll and his Butterfly colleagues – among them Japan’s home favourite Jun Mizutani, who presented himself recently in top form – would like to break the dominance of the Chinese men.
The last players who managed this were Oh Sang Eun (South Korea) and Michael Maze, two Butterflies who reached the semi final in 2005.
The best chances to achieve this in the Yokohama Arena, is statistically Timo Boll. The European Champion who won nearly everything during the last six month is in the position of a favourite straight after The World Cup Winner Wang Hao, Olympic Champion Ma Lin and the Grand Final Winner Ma Long, has thoroughly deserved this by his recent successes. As one of the top four seeds Boll does not meet any of his hardest ’s superstar knows from past WC experiences that this is no free ride to the so much desired WC medal. Boll: „The way to a medal at the WC is very long and covered with stones. It won’t be easy to clear the way. But I am well prepared and am travelling with a lot of self confidence to Japan. Every opponent at a WC is difficult but I will make it difficult for the others too – my dream is a medal.“
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