The German-French clash came at exactly the right time, as Boll explained afterwards. “At the European Championships, I jokingly said to Félix that I couldn’t stop until I had played against him once.”
Understandable, because at just 17 years old, Lebrun is already Europe’s best player as fifth in the world rankings. But Boll impressively demonstrated his current very good form. The Frenchman narrowly defeated the old master 12:10 in the decisive fifth set, after the latter had managed to fend off three match points.
The match was like a relay handover – with jerseys swapped at the end. While one player’s future belongs to him, the other said goodbye to his “second home”, as Boll described the table tennis-mad nation after the match. In no other country had the German been so feared and at the same time so revered. Numerous successes against top Chinese players contributed to this.
Particularly noteworthy is his triumph at the prestigious 2005 World Cup, when he defeated the best Chinese players at the time, Wang Liqin, Ma Lin and Wang Hao, within a tournament. Their national coach at the time, Liu Guoliang, stressed afterwards: “Boll is more than a threat to us. He is as good as we are.”
Great appreciation for “Bor”
“Bor”, as the Chinese call him, was long considered “China’s public enemy number one” and developed into a superstar in the Middle Kingdom. But it wasn’t just his playing skills that impressed the many (female) fans. In 2007, a Chinese women’s magazine named Boll the “sexiest man alive” – ahead of David Beckham. At the 2015 World Championships in Suzhou, China, and in 2017 in Düsseldorf, Boll competed in doubles with Ma Long, the world’s best table tennis player at the time.
The fact that Ma, who dominated the table tennis world at will during this time, chose a non-Chinese doubles partner shows his great appreciation for the German. Boll managed to show the Chinese top players their limits right up until the end, for example defeating their young hopeful Lin Shidong in March. Even the current number one in the world, Wang Chuqin, insisted on training with the old master again recently.
Timo Boll’s “China” adventure as a player is now over. “I’ve had so many great experiences in this country and learned so much, every single game was a pleasure,” he enthused after his defeat in the round of 16. Boll thanked his supporters in Chinese – he promised them that he would come back as a tourist.
