The Weinheim women’s table tennis team first beat the German champion and then also the leader.
Weinheim. When Bruna Takahashi raised her right arm into a fist at 7:53 p.m. and the 200 spectators applauded frenetically, the TTC 46 Weinheim had already pulled off a surprise and secured a point against the German champions ttc berlin eastside.
With her dynamism, she wrestled down Berlin’s top player Ching Lee Ho at 3:1. Only two minutes later, Yuan Wan made her 3:0 victory clear at the next table with a net roller against Yaping Ding – and made the sensation perfect for the TTC 46. Weinheim had won 6:2 against the German champion and Champions League winner.
And not only that: in the Sunday morning match, the Weinheim women toppled table leader SV Böblingen and put themselves at the top of the table in the 1st Table Tennis Bundesliga after the preliminary round had been completed. However, Berlin and Kolbermoor still have the chance to pass the TTC 46 in their remaining matches of the preliminary round.
“That was the perfect weekend, there can’t be a nicer end to the year,” cheered TTC team manager and club chairman Christian Säger. He obviously did everything right in putting together the team this season.
And yet it always takes a bit of luck to find characters and players of this quality who harmonize as well as the Weinheim women have done this year. Yuan Wan, Weinheim’s No. 2, is happy to have made the move to Bergstrasse. “I knew Weinheim would be hot for more after last year’s seventh place finish. It’s total fun to play here with this team, the spectators make a great atmosphere and the environment is great. My dad (editor’s note: Wan Guohui) also played here years ago, I know a lot of people and simply feel at home. You can also see that in how well I’m playing now.”
There is little to add to that. The 25-year-old, who moved from Kolbermoor to Weinheim before the season and visibly enjoyed herself in the sports hall of the Heisenberg Gymnasium, only had to give up her doubles alongside Sophia Klee against the Berlin duo Lee Ho/Sabina Surjan, who simply played more flawlessly, on Saturday; the two singles victories were thrilling.
“When we saw the lineup with Hong Kong Chinese Lee and Yaping Ding, we knew: huh – this will be really difficult. And that we beat the top favorite for the title shows how good and how strong we can be,” said Yuan Wan as she thanked the team hand in hand via microphone for the great support.
A real asset in Weinheim’s game is, of course, the efforts of top player Bruna Takahashi, who clearly came out on top with her dynamic style of play against both of Berlin’s top players and pulled off her game in her usual aggressive and attractive manner even after supposedly easier mistakes. “That we won so clearly was already a surprise. But I felt good, was mentally strong,” said the Brazilian with Japanese roots, who is now leaving for a training camp in Japan. She also prevailed in the doubles alongside Mateja Jeger, who then contributed a commanding singles point against Josephina Neumann, who is only 13 years old. The TTC women had more than earned their dinner at the Woinem home brewery.
Already 4:0 at half-time
They couldn’t sleep for long, because at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning they were already off to Böblingen, where the Weinheim women also defeated the previous leaders with their top player Annett Kaufmann 6:3. Against the German national player and European team champion of 2021, both Bruna Takahashi and at the beginning already the doubles Takahasi/Jeger were ahead against Kaufmann/Hartbrich. Because Wan/Klee also won against Gotsch/Lin, it was already 4:0 at half-time after Wan’s victory over Qianhong Gotsch.
The defeats of Sophia Klee and Mateja Jeger (the latter in five sets) and Wan against Kaufman did not matter, because Takahashi also made short work of Gotsch. And if Jeger had not already made the sixth point, Klee would have won her parallel singles as well. In this form, it will be difficult for any opponent to defeat the strong Weinheim collective. Not a bad feeling to say goodbye into the Christmas break.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
