The ladies of the TTC 46 Weinheim shock the Berliners
The players and coaches of the German champions ttc berlin eastside could not have dreamed of this, and the more than 200 spectators in the Heisenberghalle were also amazed: after the 6:2 in the first round, the Weinheim women managed the sensation and defeated the big favorites with 6:4.
The Berliners had swapped home rights and, due to scheduling difficulties caused by their Champions League participation, scheduled the appearance in Weinheim and the points in passing on the way back from Lorraine. They now took two nasty surprises with them on their return home to the capital: in Metz, they failed 3-1 in the quarterfinals, and now in the Bergstrasse, they had to accept a bitter setback in the Bundesliga.
Both teams were able to send their current best players to the courts. For the current champions, Xiaona Shan and Nina Mittelham, their top players, who had spent time in Japan during the first leg defeat, were back in action. And with Yaping Ding and Sabina Surjan, the back pair was also very well manned.
In the doubles the favorite pairings still avoided each other. Bruna Takahashi and Mateja Jeger just managed to win 3:2 against Sabina Surjan and Josephina Neumann after 0:2. Next door it went smoothly for Xiaona Shan and Nina Mittelham against Yuan Wan and Sophia Klee.
In the front pair cross it came to the clash of four top one hundred of the world ranking list. Bruna Takahashi took a quick 2:0 lead against a tired looking Nina Mittelham and finally had the better end after 2:1 in the fourth set in overtime.
Yuan Wan was able to take a set from the top player from Berlin, Xiaona Shan, and the intermediate score was 2:2.
The results in the rear pair cross let the mood sink a little bit.
Mateja Jeger was able to come back from a 0:2 deficit against Sabina Surjan and was still in the match until 9:9, but then the match went to the guests.
For Sophia Klee it was an instructive experience to play against one of the best defenders in the league. Yaping Ding had already driven some young opponents to despair, and Sophia’s topspin balls also went over the plate too often. However, she was able to snatch one set from her opponent.
2:4 before the last round – defeat seemed close.
However, the fact that the Weinheim women were able to win the remaining four games initially caused astonishment, but then true jubilation.
Bruna Takahashi started the chase when she defeated Xiaona Shan after leading 1:0 and trailing 1:2 and won her second singles match against top-class competition.
Yuan Wan had a similar set against Nina Mittelham. After clearly losing sets 2 and 3, one expected the experienced dominance of the Berlin player, but Yuan clearly improved and let a visibly frustrated Nina leave the table with 11:1 in the last set.
Even now at 4:4 hardly anyone expected the final victory, after the earlier matches in the back pair had gone to the guests. But Mateja Jeger only let herself be impressed by the defensive artist Yaping Ding in the first set, then she nevertheless prevailed with placed shots to win 3:1 and sent the hall into the first jubilation, a point win for the TTC 46 was already certain.
At this point, Sophia Klee had taken a 2:0 lead in the duel of the uncompromising attacking players against Sabina Surjan. But the Serbian equalized and in the deciding set Sophia had to fend off two match points after 5:2 and 8:10 before four points in a row made the hall shake.
„The best match I have ever seen here,“ was the comment of a regular at the end.
And the otherwise rather reserved crowd must have felt the same way, as there was a real atmosphere in the hall this time.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
