Olympic Ambitions For Timo Boll And Co. In Danger!

The fears of the German team were made real as the International Table Tennis Federation published the July's world ranking list. Timo Boll fell from the sixth to the seventh place due to his early departure at the Japan Open, while Jun Mizutani went up from the seventh spot to the fifth one and consequently, the third seed for the Olympic Games.

Besides, the good performance of Korean players in the Brazil Open made their team climb to the second place in the ranking, so Germany went down not to the third but to the fourth place. Therefore, Timo Boll and Co. could face China in semifinals and not the finals as in the World Team Championships held in Dortmund.

Dirk Schimmelpfennig, Sport Director of the German Federation, said that "it's important for them to have chances of winning a medal in both men events. They are focused on a good preparation instead of relying on the seeding list and that's why the team withdrew from some tournaments during this year." added Schimmelpfennig.

On the other hand, Timo Boll will enter the singles event as the fourth seed after Zhang Jike, Wang Hao and Jun Mizutani, who reached his best ever world ranking, while Dimitrij Ovtcharov is in the 12th spot and will be drawn between the 5th to the 8th place.

Photo and info. source: monstersandcritics.com - tischtennis.de