Weinheim Bundesliga women beat ttc berlin eastside 6:1 and secure the fall championship in style
TTC 46 outclasses the champions
By Christopher Frank – Weinheimer Nachrichten
Weinheim. In impressive style, the ladies of TTC 46 Weinheim clinched the fall championship in the German table tennis league on Friday evening. In front of 286 spectators in the sports hall of the Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium, the team of coach Rainer Schmidt clearly and deservedly beat the serial champions of recent years, ttc berlin eastside, 6:1. The rematch of the 2023 and 2024 finals also marked the end of a short but intense Bundesliga preliminary round with many exciting matches worth seeing and some big surprises.
The newly formed Weinheim team’s almost unchallenged fall championship was also quite surprising, as they went into the Christmas break with 11:1 points and ended Friday with a meal together.
“We played a great preliminary round, we can all be very proud of that,” agreed coach Rainer Schmidt and manager Christian Säger after TTC top player Yuan Wan’s final point against European junior champion Mia Griesel. “There hasn’t been a fall champion in the 1st Bundesliga in Weinheim very often,” added Säger with a wink.
Nevertheless, the duo also knew how to realistically assess their success against ttc eastside. “After we saw the Berlin line-up, everyone knew that we would be the clear favorites in this duel,” said Schmidt in view of the fact that the team from the capital was once again very young. Germany’s best player at the moment, Nina Mittelham, was missing from the squad, as were Ding Yaping, Sabina Surjan and Shan Xiaona, who had at least traveled to Bergstrasse as a coach.
However, the manager had to show his utmost respect for how confidently Yuan Wan, Tung-Chuan Chien, Ece Harac and Mateja Jeger completed the supposedly compulsory task. And rightly so. National player Yuan Wan led the TTC 46 to victory with two wins in the singles (3:1 against Griesel and 3:0 against Josephina Neumann) and a 3:1 win alongside Chien, while Ece Harac was also in strong form – she made short work of her opponents both in her singles match against Arina Spektor and in the doubles match with Mateja Jeger (against Ma/Spektor). In addition, Tung-Chuan Chien once again showed comeback qualities and overcame a 0:2 deficit against Mia Griesel. Only Mateja Jeger’s nerves fluttered against Lilian Ma after leading 2:0 and having four match points of her own, otherwise the champions would have been sent home with a 6:0 thrashing.
However, the Berliners may have the chance for revenge at the beginning of January at the German Cup Championships in Sinzheim. Although TTC 46 (Group A; with TTG Bingen/Münster-Sarmsheim and second division team SSV Schönmünzach) and ttc eastside (Group C; with ESV Weil and TuS Fürstenfeldbruck) are not in the same preliminary round group, it can be assumed that both teams will prevail in their respective groups on Saturday, January 4 and qualify for the “Final 4” of the four group winners on Sunday, January 5.
And perhaps Mittelham, Surjan and co. will be at the start again.
or Shan Xiaona, who at least traveled to Bergstrasse as a coach.