TDespite the lack of almost all of the big names, both German teams reached the semi-finals at the European Table Tennis Team in Romania. The men beat the Czech Republic 3-1 on Friday evening even without the two top stars Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov. Your semi-final opponent is Denmark on Saturday. The heavily rejuvenated women’s team had already won 3-0 against Poland in the morning and will now face co-favorites Portugal.
Patrick Franziska (Saarbrücken), Benedikt Duda (Bergneustadt) and Dang Qiu (Düsseldorf) had to fight hard against the Czechs. 18th in the world rankings Patrick Franziska initially lost his individual against Lubomir Jancarik in 2: 3 sets, but in the end made the third point against Tomas Polansky (3: 1) perfect.
In the women’s category, Nina Mittelham (Berlin), Sabine Winter (Schwabhausen) and Chantal Mantz (Langstadt) only gave a single set against Poland. “The fact that we reached the semi-finals in this constellation after Peti’s short-term failure is a really strong performance by the entire team. We have an incredibly strong team spirit, ”said the new national coach Tamara Boros. The successor to Jie Schöpp has to do without the three regular players Petrissa Solja, Han Ying and Shan Xioana at her first international tournament. This trio plus Mittelham lost at the EM 2019 against Portugal with 2: 3.
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