Winner of the Men’s Singles title earlier in the afternoon of Sunday
22nd March 2009, Timo Boll concluded a most successful day in Bremen’s
AWD Dome by partnering national team colleague Christian Süss to
victory in the Men’s Doubles competition.
Thus the pair brought the host country’s gold medal hall at the German Open to three in total.
On the penultimate day of action, Ruwen Filus had won the Under 21 Men’s Singles crown to start the run of German success.
Boll and Süss completed the hat-trick with a final victory over Japan’s Seiya Kishiukawa and Jun Mizutani. The German duo won 11-3, 11-6, 12-10, 7-11, 9-11, 13-11.
Fifth Title
Including
Volkswagen Pro Tour Grand Finals, it was the German pairings fifth
Men’s Doubles title on the ITTF Pro Tour but somewhat surprisingly the
first time in a world ranking event that they had beaten Kishikawa and
Mizutani.
Timo Boll and Christian Süss won their first ITTF Pro
Tour titles in 2004 succeeding in Germany and Poland; in 2005 they won
in Japan, whilst in 2005 they succeeded at the Volkswagen Pro Tour
Grand Finals.
However, when they confronted Kishikawa and
Mizutani in the quarter-finals of the Men’s Doubles event at the Polish
Open in November 2006 it was defeat. The Japanese pair won in six games.
Established Partnership
They
are now a tried and trusted pairing with arguably their most memorable
success being a semi-final victory in 2005 at the Volkswagen 48th World
Championships, over China’s Chen Qi and Ma Lin, the reigning Olympic
champions.
They finished as runners up to the latter’s
colleagues Kong Linghui and Wang Hao on that occasion but of course
they have prized international titles to their credit. In both 2007 and
2008 they won the Men’s Doubles title at the Liebherr European
Championships.
Elusive Title
Meanwhile, for Seiya Kishikawa and Jun Mizutani, a first ITTF Pro Tour Men’s Doubles crown still proves elusive.
The
closest they have come is second place, being runners up in Chinese
Taipei in 2006; whilst in 2006 in Poland, in 2007 in Chinese Taipei and
in 2008 in Singapore, they reached the semi-final stage.
Prestigious Crown
However,
like Timo Boll and Christian Süss they have one highly prestigious
title to their credit; in 2004 in Kobe they won the Boys’ Doubles crown
at the world Junior Championships.
In Bremen, they could not quite repeat the performance of 2004 but they tested the German duo and surely their time will come.
Curtain Falls
However,
in the splendid surroundings of the AWD Dome it was Timo Boll and
Christian Süss who prevailed and duly closed the curtain on the 2009
German Open.
It was for the home fans a perfect ending to the day.
Source: www.ittf.com
