Timo Paul is training his muscles in front of the World Table Tennis Championships

Table tennis star Odenwald Timo Boll travels to the United States for the World Championships with high expectations despite his high age. Above all, the Chinese team is playing with their cards.

European champion Timo Boll from Erbach (Odenwald) is optimistic about flying to his first table tennis World Cup in the United States. “Right now, the body is working. This is the most important thing. If it continues like this until the World Cup, I’m confident I’ll do something,” the 40-year-old told a news conference at the German Federation. Wednesday’s team. “The level is very close now. You can’t let yourself be weak. You have to see that you’re playing well. Then anything is possible for me – from the medal to the final round.

Paul won the European doubles championship as early as this year, but again missed the semi-finals of the Tokyo Olympics. He then decided not to take part in the team competitions and the 16th European Championships in order to focus entirely on his company Borussia in Düsseldorf and the World Championships on 23-29. November.

China leaves the best at home

In Houston, the European doubles record champion is one of the medal favorites because the German team does not have third Olympian Dimitrij Ovcharov (ankle surgery) and because a strong Chinese without Olympic winner Ma Long will compete with world number one Xu Xin.

“I think they want to test their young players for the next Olympics,” said Paul of China. “But whether things really look better for the rest of the world remains to be seen. At least some of the young Chinese have not been completely consistent in their performance. The World Championship favorite is now Zhendong’s number one fan.”

No: sportschau.de