Timo Boll

Timo Boll

Boll in 2004
Personal information
Nationality  Germany
Born (1981-03-08) March 8, 1981
Erbach, Hessen, Germany
Playing style Shakehand grip
Equipment(s) Butterfly Tenergy 05 rubber
Highest ranking 1 (January to March 2011)[1]
Current ranking 8 (June 2017)
Club Borussia Dusseldorf[2]
Height 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)[3]
Weight 74 kg (163 lb; 11.7 st)[3]

Timo Boll (born 8 March 1981) is a German professional table tennis player who currently plays with Borussia Düsseldorf and is ranked second in the German Table Tennis National League.[3] He is currently 8th in the ITTF world rankings as of April 2017, having previously been number one.[1][3]

Childhood

Boll was born in Erbach im Odenwald, Hessen. At the age of four, Boll was playing table tennis and at that time was coached by his father. In 1987 he became a member of TSV Höchst and played there at association level. At the age of eight years, he was discovered by Helmut Hampel, a Hessian trainer who promoted him. In 1990, he started to train at the training centre Pfungstadt and four years later changed teams to FTG Frankfurt with whom he took part in the second division, at which time other table tennis associations became interested in him. TTV Gönnern hired him in 1995. Timo Boll was put in position five on the team but, nevertheless, lost only one match in the whole season and thus contributed to the rise of the team in the table tennis national league.

Career

National league and international junior results

At the age of 14, Timo Boll held, together with Frank Klitzsch, the title of the youngest player in the national league. Timo Boll celebrated his first international results during the student European championships in Den Haag 1995, where he won three gold medals. After a second-place finish in his first junior European Championship 1996, he won the singles title at that championships for the following two years, as well as in the doubles and with the team. He finished school with a secondary school level I certificate.

International results

In 2002, Timo Boll enlisted the ranks of the world top 10 players with his Europe-Top-12-Tournament victory against Vladimir Samsonov. He reached the final of the European Table Tennis Championships in Zagreb in the singles and in the doubles with Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth. The German team was defeated in the final by the Swedish team. The score was 2–3. With his victory in the 2002 Table Tennis World Cup held in Jinan, China (where he beat the world champion Wang Liqin and the Olympic champion Kong Linghui), Timo Boll finished the year in first position in the world rankings. During the European Championship 2003, Vladimir Samsonov led the Belorussian team to victory in the final against the German team. After his elimination in the 2003 singles world championship in the second round, Boll lost the rank of the world's number one table tennis player.

Injury and comeback

Back problems troubled Boll during the first half of 2004. These problems handicapped his preparation for the 2004 Summer Olympics, in which he was outclassed in the quarterfinal by Jan-Ove Waldner. After a period marked by public criticism, Timo Boll registered tournament victories in Poland, Austria, and Germany. He also reached the semifinal of the Pro Tour in Peking, where he was edged out 3–4 in games by Ma Lin. Early in the 2005 season, Boll's back problems struck again; nevertheless, he won the silver medal in doubles with Christian Süß at the World Championship. After correcting a referee's wrong decision in favour of his opponent in the singles round of sixteen (in which he was defeated), he received the Fair Play Award from the ITTF. The year ended well as he won the Champions League with TTV RE-BAU Gönnern, and the world cup tournament in Liège in Belgium, in which he defeated all three Chinese first-class players. In 2007, he won the European Championship in singles, doubles, and in the team competition.

Draft to Borussia Düsseldorf

In December 2006, Timo Boll signed a 3-year contract with Borussia Dusseldorf. Apart from the financial weakness of his old team and various other considerations, Timo Boll moved for the good training possibilities, in view of the upcoming Olympic Games 2008 and because of the possibility to be able to train there with his doubles partner Christian Süß.

During the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, he participated again with the German national team. After victories over Croatia, Canada, Singapore and Japan in preliminary rounds and the semi-final, the team lost 0–3 against the host Chinese team.[4] As the first-seeded player in 2008, Boll defended his three European Champion titles from the year before.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Boll lost in the last 16 to Adrian Crisan but the German team won the bronze medal in the men's team event, losing to China in their semi-final but beating Hong Kong in the bronze medal deciding match.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Boll along with partners Bastian Steger and Dimitrij Ovtcharov won the bronze medal at the team event.

Technique

Timo Boll is a left-handed player whose best weapon is his forehand topspin drive but is also noted for his extremely quick backhand loop. His blade is the "Timo Boll ALC" with Tenergy 05 rubbers on both sides. His present doubles partner is Ma Long.

Contract

On July 1, 2007, his three-year contract began with Borussia Düsseldorf.

Personal life

Timo Boll married his longtime girlfriend, Rodelia Jacobi, on December 31, 2002.

Awards

Titles

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "World ranking Record for BOLL Timo (GER)". ittf.com. Retrieved June 4, 2011.
  2. ↑ "Timo Boll will stay with Borussia Dusseldorf until 2014". tabletennista.com. Retrieved August 6, 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "BOLL Timo". ittf.com. Retrieved June 4, 2011.
  4. ↑ "Timo Boll’s Performances Recognised by German Journalists". ITTF. December 22, 2008. Retrieved October 10, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Unstoppable Timo BOLL at LIEBHERR Top-12: he's legend". tabletennis.gr. February 7, 2010. Retrieved October 10, 2010.
Olympic Games
Preceded by
Natascha Keller		 Flagbearer for  Germany
Rio de Janeiro 2016 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
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