Table Tennis World Cup: USA no holds barred for Ovcharov and co.

Appropriate start: Patrick Francisca and co. They defeated America easily.
IMAGO/MaJo

The German national table tennis team had a successful start to the World Team Championships in South Korea without Timo Pol. DTTB won their one-sided opener against USA on Friday 3-0.

Patrick Francesca (against Zhishan Liang) or Tang Qiu (against Nikhil Kumar) or Dmitrij Ovtsarov (against Nandan Naresh) did not give a single penalty. Other opponents in the preliminary round include Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and England.

It was really unfortunate that we could only become world champions.

From Germany's point of view, the few days leading up to the start of the World Cup in Busan have been very turbulent. Reigning European champion Paul is in Germany receiving treatment for eye inflammation and canceled the World Cup altogether on Friday.

Former world number one Ovcharov's passport, wallet and hand luggage containing table tennis rackets were stolen on his way to the airport.

“It was very unfortunate that we could only really become world champions. Or Olympic champions,” Ovtcharov said. Germany have lost five of their last six World Cup finals to China. The first goal in Busan is to reach the quarterfinals to qualify for the team competition at the Olympic Games in Paris.