Sometimes even too fast for the eye

TTBL

With turbo table tennis Mizuki Oikawa and Hugo Calderano tear the spectators of the seats

Bad Königshofen (rd) Sometimes even too fast it had to be expected neither differently: The guests showed the hosts the horns, let her join in and look relatively well and defeated her at the end with 3:1 anyway. Perhaps even a fifth match, the decision double, would have been possible, if one would have played poker with the list. His farewell performance remained failed to Bence Majoros namely because the back jammed. The replacement stood in for him, Filip Zeljko, went over five sentences against the Poland Jakub Dyjas, lost 2:3. One would have sacrificed him to Hugo Calderano, no. 6 of the world ranking, to 2 against the Brazilian: If he already won two sentences against Dyjas, Kilian Ort would have been able to fetch three and made this to 2:1.

But after this wonderful sports afternoon nobody thought so crossways in this direction. The guests had taken seriously this game, like a play-off stage game contrary to Kilian Orts assumption, and had Hugo Calderano taken to the Grabfeld. No Boll already came “then” according to the motto for the spokesperson for Shakekands Arena Jürgen Halbig, “we present the most world ranking player today who has played here in the hall.” The 653 paying spectators, compensated fully by him. But the darling of the public Mizuki Oikawa wanted his fans for the table tennis period of fasting, til the end of August, as a compensation 1:0 deliver this to Stefan Fegerl against the Austrian team European champion and Ochsenhausen with a delay into brooding bring at first. He made with bravado only had hard to work in the first two sentences, then let nothing light – 1:0 for the outsider, however.

So Kilian Ort must, after Timo Boll a year ago at the German Championship the largest chunk of his career against Calderano to the table now. And that’s one day before an important DTTB internal tournament in Düsseldorf, when World Cup elimination has set in, which will see him face to Bastian Steger and Ruwen Filus on monday evening. “I have tried everything but not brought any ball to the table”, he took himself into the mangle. His opponent allowed leaderships only respectively in all three sentences at the beginning. Then the complete repertoire of the top Ten player gained acceptance, this was in all details from the speed about the blow hardness and service up to the returns by a couple of per cent better. But Ort fought close up to 8:8 in the third sentence. But the defeat was not averted at any stage – 1:1.

So after the break came back-up Filip Zeljko’s next chance against guests Jakub Dyjas to confirm his club he is willing and fit to reprise that role next season. Hardly anyone would have believed the Croatian is capable to win two sentences against the 69th World Ranking. But the extroverted fighter and team player, who is reportedly more trained than ever and reinstated to the Croatian National team, surprised everyone, including Dyjas, with an 11:8 in the first set. But then he seemed unmasked, just as he went down in the second and third passes. That’s when he seemed much further away from Dyjas than Kilian Ort of Calderano. But Filip resurfaced, and when he had won the fourth set at 11:9, fans raged. Should he push the guests on the losing road?

In the fifth set the Croatian played as if the man from Poland pulled out the stopper out of his bathtub. However, the renewed 2:11 could not be gullified of him. He had fought back too great, too nice his “double passes” had worked with the audience, who highly credited him with pulling himself out of the mess. But the top single match Oikawa against Calderano was lying ahead now. The 6th in the world ranking against the 77th, guaranteed high betting odds. On the other hand, at the end of his fourth season at TSV Bad Königshofen, this Japanese is trusted with almost everything. What it didn’t look like after the lost sets one and two. This turbo table tennis with programmed high speed and brutal hardship, however, ripped all observers off the seats, even if there had been a 0:3. It was also a duel at eye level in the first two sets, a mixture of brachial and sensitive table tennis where there were no long rallies, sometimes too fast for the human eye.

But Mizuki fought his fans for three more sets of world-class table tennis. He won rounds three and four, and the hall became a lunatic asylum. There were hardly any disappointed faces either, at most that of Mizuki Oikawa, when he had to give away the fifth set: No shame for him, none for his team against the Cup Winner and, who knows, possibly also the new German Champion.

Results:
Mizuki Oikawa – Stefan Fegerl 3:1 (13:11/7:11/11:8/11:5)
Kilian Ort – Hugo Calderano 0:3 (6:11/4:11/8:11)
Filip Zeljko – Jakub Dyjas 2:3 (11:8/5:11/2:11/11:9/2:11)
Mizuki Oikawa – Hugo Calderano 2:3 (9:11/6:11/11:9/11:8/5:11)
Chief referee: Tilman Kissinger
Spectators: 653