The absence of Weinheim’s top player cannot be compensated for by a new number 1. Now it all depends on Saturday.
Wan’s absence is one too many
By Anja Treiber – Weinheimer Nachrichten
Weinheim. The women’s table tennis team of TTC 46 Weinheim missed out on an early jump into the semi-finals of the German Championships. Coach Rainer Schmidt’s team lost 3:6 – and that was understandable. In addition to the two top Taiwanese players – who were unable to play due to parallel tournaments – team captain Yuan Wan was also unable to play at short notice. “She’s had neck problems since Monday, so she can hardly turn her head. She’s doing everything she can to make it back for the important match in Langstadt,” says TTC boss Christian Säger.
He had previously scored a coup by signing a top 100 player at short notice. The 25-year-old Weishan Liu had come directly from Beijing and will also play in Saturday’s match at TSV Langstadt. “She had a chance to warm up today and it will be important that she performs on Saturday,” said Rainer Schmidt. The third-placed team in the table awaits in the Markwaldhalle at 3 p.m. “For us, the last two games are about defending one of the top two places in the table in order to make it directly to the semi-finals,” said Säger.A win in Babenhausen would achieve this before the final first division match on March 22. Weinheim are currently top of the table with 14-6 points, followed by Dachau with seven points and Langstadt and Kolbermoor with nine points each.
265 spectators found their way to the Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium sports hall yesterday and hoped to be able to celebrate yesterday. However, the absence of Yuan Wan, who was not even able to be in the hall, made this undertaking an almost impossible task, even on paper. Nevertheless, things didn’t look too bad at first against the team led by new German table tennis star Annett Kaufmann. The newly formed Weinheim top pair of Liu/Harac were already 2:0 down, fought their way back to 14:12 and 11:8 against Kaufmann/Arapovic with great support from the fans, only to lose in the deciding set. Mateja Jeger and Daria Trigolos did it the other way round, leading 2:0 in sets but then losing twice against Ghosh/Gotsch before winning the fifth set 11:7.
In the singles, Liu lacked consistency in his five-set defeat to Arapovic, Harac had no chance against Kaufmann, as did Trigolos against Ghosh. Jeger made it exciting against Quianhong Gotsch, who at the age of 56 can still unnerve first division opponents. However, Jeger won in five sets to make it 2:4. After that, only Ece Harac managed a five-set win against Hana Arapovic. Not enough on this day.
In the singles, Liu lacked consistency in her five-set defeat to Arapovic, Harac had no chance against Kaufmann, as did Trigolos against Ghosh. Jeger made it exciting against Quianhong Gotsch, who at the age of 56 can still unnerve first division opponents. However, Jeger won in five sets to make it 2:4. After that, only Ece Harac managed a five-set win against Hana Arapovic. Not enough on this day.