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The “TTBL Player of the Month for April”: Kay Stumper (Post SV Mühlhausen)
In a social media poll, fans of the Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) were able to vote for their ‘TTBL Player of the Month for April’ following the conclusion of the regular TTBL season and other WTT tournaments. Once again, there were five candidates to choose from (in alphabetical order): Csaba Andras (TTC OE Clarity Telefonie-Systeme Bad Homburg), Mattias Falck (Werder Bremen), Tom Jarvis (ASC Grünwettersbach), Romain Ruiz (TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt) and Kay Stumper (Post SV Mühlhausen). Stumper received the most votes.
Kay Stumper could hardly have wished for a better end to the season. After all, in the final singles match of the season against Borussia Dortmund’s top-20 star Anders Lind, the German champion from Post SV Mühlhausen celebrated his first ever victory over the Dane and, thanks to a final spurt of four consecutive wins, improved his record to a satisfying 11-7.
However, Stumper wasn’t thinking at all about redeeming himself for his poor 4-10 record last season at Borussia Düsseldorf before his move to Thuringia; he was simply savouring the moment: “I’ve played Anders quite a few times before, always led, always lost. That’s why I’m glad I’ve beaten him for the first time,” said the 23-year-old in an interview with Dyn.
The right-hander’s coup clearly won over the TTBL community completely. Following his third consecutive league victory in April, after wins against Filip Zeljko (TSV Bad Königshofen) and Lind’s BVB teammate Cedric Nuytinck, significantly more fans voted for the former World Team Championship runner-up in the Player of the Month poll than for Csaba Andras, who won gold in both the singles and doubles at the WTT Feeder event in Turkey.
For Stumper’s club coach Erik Schreyer, the award for his protégé is “well deserved. In our last three league matches, Kay has played a key role in us putting together another winning streak like this. His victory over Lind at the end was outstanding.” Furthermore, Stumper helped his team climb to fifth place and thus also secure the unofficial title of “Best of the rest” behind the Final4 participants.
In Schreyer’s view, Stumper distinguished himself during his debut season on the Unstrut with his composure during the difficult phase of relegation fears. “Kay is a strong character who, thanks to his coolness, didn’t let the threatening situation get to him and played accordingly, unfazed. He’s actually still very young, but with seven years in the Bundesliga, he’s already an experienced player who still has a huge amount of potential,” said the coach in a “tribute” to the former international.
Stumper is keen to showcase his abilities once again on the big stage when he defends his German Championship title in Erfurt in early June: “I’ll be playing in the TT Finals, but I’ll also be competing in a few international tournaments beforehand, as I’ve hardly had time for them during the long TTBL season.”
Florian Manzke
Featured image above: Kay Stumper (Maximilian Brüning)
