It was shaping up to be an epic weekend for Germany. Hosting the 2019 ITTF World Tour German Open in Bremen, the host nation had already medaled and were hungry for more. Germany's Benedikt Duda and Qiu Dang reached the final, settling for silver as China's Xu Xin and Liang Jingkun claimed the top tier on the podium. In the women's singles quarterfinals, Germany's Shan Xiaona matched up with Feng Tianwei of Singapore. Feng, who had caused a stir by upsetting world #1 Chen Meng in the previous round, soon found herself down three games to nil. The pair battled to deuce in the fourth. As the German fans held their breath, it was the Feng who came up with the precious pair of points. Feng capitalized on the swing in momentum, sending the last German woman packing with a (6-11, 6-11, 9-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-2, 11-2) comeback. "Despite the defeat, I’m satisfied with my overall performance here," said Shan Xiaona after nearly pulling off the upset. "I hadn’t thought before the match that I would almost beat Feng!" In the men's singles quarterfinals, there were two hopes left for the Teutonic rooting section: up-and-coming Patrick Franziska and the evergreen Timo Boll. Facing South Korea's Jeoung Youngsik, Franziska went up 2-1 before relinquishing the lead and the match, 4-2. "Today I’m still disappointed," confided Franziska after the match. "Nevertheless, the tournament showed me that I am on the right track. Reaching the quarter-finals in such a strong tournament isn’t so bad." That left Germany's hopes to fall on Timo Boll's shoulders, as they so often have over the last two decades. Up against China's Fan Zhendong, an opponent he had never beaten, Boll did his best to reverse the historical trend. After losing the first game at deuce, Boll tied it up with a convincing 11-4 win in game two. As much as the home crowd tried to will Boll to victory, he could not find any more answers as a resurgent Fan sealed the deal, (14-12, 4-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-8). "I was lacking too much today to finish my negative series against Fan Zhendong," lamented Boll afterwards. "I have never beaten him! Even though I didn’t get a really heavy defeat my opponent was a bit better in all respects." While it was not the fairy tale ending he and his legions of fans wished for, Boll most likely secured a spot in the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals with the quarterfinal finish. There, against the top 16 finishers for the year, Boll will once again give the German fans legitimate cause for excitement.

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