Borussia Düsseldorf: Champions League: Borussia wins 3-0 in Wels

Table tennis record champions Borussia Düsseldorf have almost reached the semi-finals of the Champions League. With a 3-0 win at SPG Felbermayr Wels (Austria), the group victory can practically no longer be taken away from the team.

In the first match, Kay Stumper defeated Andreas Levenko, who was almost 70 places higher in the world rankings, 3-1. At the beginning, the nervous-looking Düsseldorfer had problems defending himself against the impetuously attacking Austrian, but he gradually found his way into the game and even won the fourth set 11:3. “It’s nice that Kay still won,” said head coach Danny Heister. “The longer the game lasted, the better he played. Levenko is a good player who has already won a WTT feeder this year and reached the final of another tournament.”

Wels competed today with “old master” Joao Monteiro. The 40-year-old Portuguese was not in the squad for the first leg in Düsseldorf, but today Wels was hoping for the experience of the former top player. But it wasn’t enough for the left-hander against Anton Källberg. Even though he secured the third round, in the end it was 3-1 for the Swede on the scoreboard, which gave Borussia a 2-0 lead at the break. “Anton was very focused today. Even if he gave up a set, he actually couldn’t lose this game,” said Heister.

Since Timo Boll had to cancel his trip to the Alpine republic at short notice due to a cold, Borgar Haug made his Champions League debut in the Düsseldorf jersey today. And he mastered it really well, winning against Jiri Martinko 3-1. The 20-year-old showed strong nerves, fended off two set points in the third round and turned the fourth set in his favor after a long deficit. “That has been indicated,” says Heister. “Borgar has already achieved really good results in training this week.”

“I am very proud of the team, especially of the two young Kay and Borgar,” Heister continued. “Everyone did a really good job today and deserved to win. Now, by human standards, we are early group winners. That was exactly our goal.” In theory, Lisbon could push Borussia out of first place in the table with two wins against Wels and a 3-0 in Düsseldorf while losing less than two sets (direct comparison). The game against the Portuguese team will take place on December 15, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. at the ARAG CenterCourt.

“Congratulations to the team and especially to Borgar,” said manager Andreas Preuß. “We have now taken a bit of pressure off the cauldron before the last group game against Lisbon. That gives us some options to vary the lineups.”

The results at a glance:
SPG Felbermayr Wels – Borussia Düsseldorf 0:3
Andreas Levenko – Kay Stumper 1:3 (6, -9, -10, -3)
Joao Monteiro – Anton Källberg 1:3 (-7, -8, 5, -7)
Jiri Martinko – Borgar Haug 1:3 (6, -5, -11, -8)

Photo: MaJo Photo