Yuan Wan arrives just in time for a successful Bundesliga start after a sleepless night
Straight from the plane to the plate
Weinheim. The newly assembled TTC 46 Weinheim team for the women’s 1st Bundesliga was actually supposed to gather in the hall on Saturday for their first training session together and to introduce themselves to the press and sponsors. But four players from the home team and Sunday’s opponent were still in Cagliari (Sardinia) at the WTT tournament, so it was a cold start for the Weinheim team on Sunday in front of 150 spectators.
Newcomer Ece Harac had landed in Baden-Baden on Saturday, but Yuan Wan had reached the quarter-finals on Saturday afternoon, but lost, so that she only arrived at the Heisenberg-Halle with flying colors from Frankfurt Airport one hour before the start of the match. But all six players scheduled for the Bundesliga matches were there. And in the end, they were all delighted with the clear 6:2 victory, which had cost Weinheim a lot of sweat.
It fits right from the start
Coach Rainer Schmidt was free to choose the line-up and had a lucky hand with the pairings chosen for the doubles. “It was a bit of a lottery, but it worked out perfectly straight away,” said the coach, who was already shaking his head at the international table tennis calendar. After all, the 1st Bundesliga could only start the round now, very late compared to all the other leagues. “The Bundesliga is no longer taken into consideration. That’s really annoying.”
Schmidt paired Weinheim’s new number 1 Yuan Wan with Hsien-Tzu Cheng against Franziska Schreiner and Sophia Klee, who both had the arduous journey from Sardinia in their bones. Yuan Wan looked in top form despite her lack of sleep, and with her partner she gave her opponents no chance with a 3:0 win. The other pairing of Ece Harac and Mateja Jeger had to deal with the two top players from South Hesse, newcomers Orawan Paranang and Chantal Mantz; they harmonized very well and surprisingly put a 2:0 on the scoreboard with three narrowly won sets.
Yuan Wan’s lack of freshness was noticeable in the singles. The start was sobering, the first two sets went to Chantal Mantz before the Olympic fourth seed had caught up. Two sets won gave her hope, but the deciding set went to the player from Langstadt. TTC 46’s new number two, Taiwanese player Hsien-Tzu Cheng, had to concede the first set against Orawan Paranang, but won the others to make it 3:1.
In the back four, Ece Harac faced Sophia Klee, who had transferred from TTC 46 to Langstadt. In Cagliari, Ece had given her opponent a clear rebuff, but this time it went over five rounds, and after 7:10 in the deciding set, it was still a win for the newcomer from Weinheim. Mateja Jeger made her usual reliable mark against Franziska Schreiner and secured the fifth point with a 3:1 victory.
Yuan Wan was not at her normal level in the top match against Orawan Paranang and lost outright. Hsien-Tzu Cheng scored the sixth point for the overall victory with a clear 3:0 win against Chantal Mantz.
This success under difficult conditions shows that the TTC 46 team can also have a say at the top this season. With the second Taiwanese player Tung-Chuan Chien, an equally strong player is available for the second position, and Daria Trigolos has also often proven her strength. Rainer Schmidt was very satisfied with the start, even though he was thrown in at the deep end on match day. He has a strong squad at his disposal, as things stand at the moment, including on the next few match days, so that he can also vary, for example in the next game on November 24 at home against ESV Weil. “We have a similarly strong squad to last season. But other clubs have strengthened. Nevertheless, the semi-finals should be in the cards.”