It is a duel between two outstanding teams. For the fourth time in a row, 1. FC Saarbrücken table tennis will face Borussia Düsseldorf in the final of the table tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) in the Ballsporthalle this Sunday (1 p.m.). This duel for the title has become a real classic in German and European club table tennis in recent years. The two clubs will meet in a final for the fifth time in a row. Both clubs have dominated European club table tennis for years. In the current season alone, they have met in two finals. While Düsseldorf won the German table tennis cup in January with a clear 3-0, Saarbrücken won a hard-fought Champions League final on Easter Monday 3-2.

The duel on Sunday could be just as close – it is difficult to identify a favorite. But the course of the season so far speaks in favor of the Saarbrücken team. Head coach Wang Zhi’s team played an almost flawless main round, winning seven of the 20 games 3-0 and ultimately finishing in first place with 34:6 points. The gap to Borussia (26:14) was large. The Saarland team also won the two games against Düsseldorf in the league. “Saarbrücken has clearly been the better team so far this season,” said Düsseldorf manager Andreas Preuß to the TTBL and sees them as “stronger than in previous years” this season.

This is partly due to the brilliant performance of Patrick Franziska, who not only shines internationally and is currently Germany’s number one as ninth in the world rankings. The 32-year-old also has an impressive record of 11:3 wins in the league. The three-time winner of the European ranking tournament Europe Top 16, Darko Jorgic from Slovenia (17:2), and the Japanese Yuto Muramatsu (15:4) also impressed. For Franziska, who was born in Bensheim, the Bundesliga final is practically the second final on home soil this calendar year. While the Final Four tournament of the Champions League was held in Saarbrücken, the Bundesliga final will now take place in his home state of Hesse.

A “special final”

The season of the German record champions from Düsseldorf, on the other hand, was much more mixed. They only managed to win four of ten games in the second half of the season and lost the first game in the play-offs against TSV Bad Königshofen. Recently, however, the Düsseldorf players have shown their best side, at least on the international stage.

A few weeks ago, Germany’s number two and world number ten Dang Qiu managed to beat the exceptional 17-year-old French player Félix Lebrun (world number five) at the WTT Champions in Chongqing, China, and only lost 2:4 to the Chinese world number one and current high-flyer Wang Chuqin in the semifinals. Teammate Anton Källberg from Sweden (world number 26) was able to defeat world number three Liang Jingkun from China at the World Cup in Macao in April. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>

Farewell is in the air

And then there is Timo Boll. For the 43-year-old from Höchst in the Odenwald, it could not only be the 14th German championship, but also the last final with his club – and on Hessian soil at that. That is not certain. Boll will play for Düsseldorf for another year, and perhaps the TTBL final in 2025 will also take place in Frankfurt. But Borussia would have to reach this final first.

There is a bit of a farewell in the air. Perhaps that is why there are only a few tickets left for the final, the TTBL is expecting around 3,000 spectators. Because the chances of seeing the old master live again are foreseeable. Düsseldorf manager Preuß spoke to the TTBL of a “special final”. “I’m slowly starting to enjoy every effort, every game he plays.” Frankfurt is special simply because it could be his last final for and with them. “That is exactly what triggers special emotions, of course, the team knows that, Timo knows that, and everyone will put in the effort,” emphasises Preuß.

Borussia will do everything in its power to become German champions for the fourth time in a row and for the 34th time overall. This would mean they have one more championship title than FC Bayern in men’s football. For Saarbrücken, a win on Sunday would mean the second German championship after 2020 and the first double in the club’s history. “That would be a big exclamation mark,” Franziska said recently in an interview with the FAZ

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