European Table Tennis Championships
Ovtcharov beats Franziska: German European Championship semi-finals perfect
Is in the European Championship semi-finals: The German table tennis star Dimitrij Ovtcharov. photo
© Petros Giannakouris/AP/dpa
Two German players are in the semi-finals of the European Table Tennis Championships. Dimitrij Ovtcharov has already won the title twice. His next opponent is a big surprise.
Dimitrij Ovtcharov won the German quarter-final duel with Patrick Franziska at the European Table Tennis Championships. The two-time European champion surprisingly beat the world number 12 in 4-0 sets. “That was one of the best matches of mine in recent years,” said Ovtcharov after the win against his friend and doubles partner.
On the way to the final, the 36-year-old will unexpectedly face a German national team colleague again on Sunday: 30-year-old Benedikt Duda from Bundesliga club TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt defeated the big tournament favorite Felix Lebrun after being down 1:3 in sets and defending a match point with a score of 4:3. “This is my greatest international success,” said Duda proudly.
Dang Qiu loses to Lebrun brother
The 18-year-old Frenchman Lebrun has been the big star of European table tennis since the Olympic Games. He won the bronze medal in the individual in Paris, defeating Ovtcharov on the way there and is ranked seventh in the world rankings as the best European.
Shortly after this unexpected defeat, his brother Alexis Lebrun, who was three years older, won 4-1 against the German defending champion Dang Qiu in the quarter-finals. The 27-year-old from Borussia Düsseldorf became European champion for the first time in Munich in 2022. In Linz, Ovtcharov and Duda have already secured the bronze medal, as third places at the European Championships and World Championships are not specifically contested.
