March 2, 2010
Chasing the record: Timo Boll and Nicole Struse are Tempted by Number Ten
 Timo Boll |
Courtesy of Butterfly-World |
German Championships in Trier
Existing records are there for being targeted, achieved and improved. At the National German Championships of the men and women from the 5th to the 7th of March in the Arena of Trier two Butterflies are therefore at the center of attention. They are record holders already and can set new top records this year. We are talking about Timo Boll and Nicole Struse: The number four of the world ranking list from the Butterfly Club Borussia Duesseldorf could win his 10th singles title and become the only record holder in front of Conny Freundorfer and Eberhard Schoeler who both have nine titles just like Boll. In opposite to Nicole Struse, who plays in the Bundesliga for SV Boeblingen and got into the tournament with a wild card because she didn’t qualify before, who is chasing her own record, which stands at nine singles titles since 2007. The number "ten" could go down in table tennis history in the historical roman town Trier.
Winning title number ten is largely depending on the performance of the opposition in the men as well as in the women events. The clear favorite Timo Boll, who had to withdraw from the Qatar – and Kuwait Open because of a muscle injury in his upper leg, is fit again but is facing four highly motivated colleagues with Butterfly Bastian Steger (Frickenhausen), as well as Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Christian Suess and Patrick Baum, his colleagues from the European Champions team, who are looking for turning possible weaknesses to their own advantage for their first title. Also worth noticing could be the performances of the three young Butterflies. Ruwen Filus from Hanau, Steffen Mengel and Patrick Franziska could all impress at the Pro-Tour Tournaments in Qatar and Kuwait. Timo Boll doesn’t spend much thought about the record "I need match practice following my injury. If I win the title in the end is not that important. If it works, I will be happy, of course."
In the women’s event the situation is completely different. Nicole Struse is the only record holder, who passed Hilde Bussmann and Trude Pritzi in 2005, when she won her eighth title. At the national championships 2007 in Chemnitz, Struse won title number nine already. But the favorites this time are two others: the European Champion Wu Jiaduo as well as the defending champion Elke Schall. Apart from Nicole Struse the second Butterfly player, Irene Ivancan, has a chance for a medal. Defending champion Timo Boll and Nicole Struse are not starting in the doubles. The Butterfly double Lars Hielscher/Bastian Steger are candidates for a medal.
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