Bundesliga

To open Matchday 7 of the Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL), SV Werder Bremen made it four wins from four home matches and secured top spot for at least another round. The Hanseatic club defeated TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau 3–1. Samuel Walker got Grenzau on the board, while Patrick Baum surprisingly made his first appearance of the season.

Werder head coach Christian Tamas refused to embrace the clear-favourites tag before the match. “If you look at their team and how Grenzau’s players have played against us in recent years, it’s still not an easy match for us,” Tamas told Dyn. He likely had the last two home matches against Grenzau in mind — both ended in defeat.

Kirill Gerassimenko, in particular, wanted to change that memory. In his last meeting with Grenzau’s Samuel Walker at the Klaus Dieter Fischer Halle, the Kazakh had lost. This time it was tight again: after trailing 1–2, Gerassimenko forced a decider and led 8–4 at the second towel break — but Walker reeled off five points in a row, seized control and converted his first match point for 11–9.

Aguirre still unbeaten – Baum falls on return

At the second spot, Tamas again turned to Marcelo Aguirre. The Paraguayan had featured twice this season and impressed with wins over Bad Königshofen’s Bastian Steger and, notably, a 3–1 against Saarbrücken superstar Fan Zhendong. On Monday evening, Maciej Kubik also joined the list: despite taking a game, he fell 1–3.

After the interval, former Germany international Patrick Baum made a surprise first appearance of the season for Grenzau. The 38-year-old pushed Mattias Falck hard and showed over five games that he can still perform at TTBL level. “It’s exciting for me to be able to play here again. Half the year I’m in Russia, the other half in Germany. I train regularly and keep myself fit,” Baum said of his return. “Unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough, but I played a nice match and I’m happy about that.”

Werder stay top – Grenzau in trouble

Gerassimenko put the lid on it with a routine 3–0 over Kubik. That means it was already clear after the first fixture of the round that Werder will head into Matchday 8 as league leaders. As the only team with just two points dropped, Bremen can watch the competition calmly next week. In Grenzau, eyes will be on Bad Homburg vs. Bad Königshofen — in the head-to-head between the bottom two, the winner could leapfrog Grenzau and push TTC into the relegation zone.

Matchday 7 at a glance

SV Werder Bremen – TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau 3–1
Kirill Gerassimenko – Samuel Walker 2–3 (11:9, 10:12, 9:11, 11:4, 9:11)
Marcelo Aguirre – Maciej Kubik 3–1 (11:8, 11:6, 8:11, 11:7)
Mattias Falck – Patrick Baum 3–2 (6:11, 11:7, 11:6, 6:11, 11:6)
Kirill Gerassimenko – Maciej Kubik 3–0 (11:5, 11:7, 11:7)

Tuesday, 11 November
7 p.m.: ASC Grünwettersbach – 1. FC Saarbrücken-TT
7:30 p.m.: TTC OE Clarity-Telefonie Systeme Bad Homburg – TSV Bad Königshofen

Wednesday, 12 November
6:30 p.m.: Borussia Düsseldorf – Borussia Dortmund
7:30 p.m.: TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt – TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell

Thursday, 13 November
7 p.m.: Post SV Mühlhausen – TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen

All matches are live on Dyn.

Header photo: Mattias Falck, SV Werder Bremen (Photo: SV Werder Bremen).