Gold for supreme Werner Schlager and Bronze for Viktoria Pavlovich
Werner Schlager and Viktoria Pavlovich gained a plenty of self-confidence
for the Team World Championships in three weeks in Guangzhou by winning medals in
Frankfurt. The Austrian 2003 World Champion and the European Doubles Champion
from Belarus were the most successful Butterflies with a Gold and a Bronze Medal.
Germany's top favourite Timo Boll had to pay tribute to his long injury break in January
and was out of the tournament after the preliminary rounds for the first time without a
victory in his seventh appearance.
The attention of the nearly 9000 spectators in the sports hall in Frankfurt belonged first
of all to Werner Schlager during the two day tournament. The exceptional 35 year old
dominated over his opponents with a high degree of consistency, a nearly faultless
backhand, the usual tactical skill and a lot of inspiration during decisive phases of the
matches. In the preliminary round he beat his Butterfly colleagues Michael Maze
(Denmark) and Petr Korbel (Czech) who was like Boll slightly injured. From the
Quarterfinals onwards Schlager, who won the Europe Top 12 also in 2000, beat his
national team colleague Chen Weixing, Belgium's idol Jean-Michel Saive as well as the
defending champion Vladimir Samsonov. Schlager won 4:2 against the Belarussian and
won the fifth set 11:1 which was deciding for the final outcome. The Austrian was really
happy afterwards: "In comparison to 2006 I improved a lot and found my old form
again. I can rely on my backhand again and I have worked hard on my physical fitness."
There were no further medals for the Butterflies in Frankfurt in the men’s event even if
the Croatian Zoran Primorac won against Boll in the Preliminary Round and then lost in
the Quarterfinals (against Saive) just like Kalinikos Kreanga, the star from Greece
(against Samsonov). The biggest surprise though was Timo Boll in the Preliminary
Rounds. The European Champion who was suffering from an inflamed tendon in his
knee after a lot of fitness training at the beginning of the year is now hoping to find a
better form until the World Championships in Guangzhou. Boll:" It was important to
play matches in competitions again after my injury in January. I was relieved that my
knee was okay. I hope that my form will improve until Guangzhou because with a
performance like in Frankfurt I won't be much help for my team. But my most
important target is the Olympic Games in Beijing and everything else comes second to
that."
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