"No prison can hold me; no hand or leg irons or steel locks can shackle me. No ropes or chains can keep me from my freedom," boasted magician and escape artist Harry Houdini. "My brain is the key that sets me free." Harry Houdini died in 1926, the same year the International Table Tennis Foundation (ITTF) was founded. In the intervening 94 years, many players have pulled off comebacks that would have made the master escapologist proud. The latest great escape was witnessed yesterday at the Table Tennis Champions League, the European club championships in Düsseldorf. In a quarterfinal matchup, GV Hennebont TT (Omar Assar, Cedric Nuytinck, Anders Lind) squared off against heavily favored 1.FC Saarbrücken (Patrick Franziska, Darko Jorgic, Shang Kun). Despite Saarbrücken's favor among bookkeepers, it was Hennebont who took early command of the match. Cedric Nuytinck, the world #72 from Belgium, upset Germany's world #16 Patrick Franziska in four games to get on the board first. Next up, Egypt's Omar Assar took on Shang Kun, originally from China. Assar, ranked 41st globally, was the pre-match favorite against Shang Kun, currently unranked due to inactivity in ITTF events but listed as high as #45 three years ago. With a 3-0 sweep, Assar doubled Hennebont's advantage in the best-of-five contest. On the brink of the upset, Hennebont fielded Denmark's Anders Lind, world #81, to try to seal the deal against Darko Jorgic, the world #31 from Slovenia. The two traded games until a deciding fifth game was their only recourse. For an added dose of drama, the tournament rules dictated that all fifth games would be sudden-death affairs to six points. Facing an early exit, Jorgic kept Saarbrücken alive with a 6-3 win in decider. This glimmer of hope Saarbrücken was soon dimmed, however, as Cedric Nuytinck easily won his first two games against Shang Kun, both 11-6. With his back to the wall, Shang Kun began to fight back and tied the match with two 11-6 wins of his own. Thus, once again the must-win game in the must-win match must be won by a race to six points. With his team holding its breath, Shang Kun secured the win, 6-4. This set up the heavyweight fight between team captains Omar Assar and Patrick Franziska. Despite the latter's advantage on paper, he had yet to notch a win against the Egyptian ace. He would need to find the elusive formula in order for his team to advance. Franziska established an early lead, winning the first two games each by the minimum two points. One game from securing a stunning comeback, Franziska perhaps let his guard down as Assar rallied to thwart the comeback with a comeback of his own, tying the match and raising the collective blood pressure in Düsseldorf's ARAG CenterCourt to dangerously high levels. Assar and Franziska toed the starting blocks in the all-out sprint to six points. As the starter's pistol fired, Franziska stumbled out the gate as Assar secured the first two points. Finding his footing, Franziska quickly tied the match and soon held match point at 5-3. His backhand loop sailed long, however, as Assar pulled within one. Serving, Franzinska took the initiative with a better-calibrated backhand loop. Assar returned a forehand cross-court. After trading forehand counterloops, Franzinska fired a missile at Assar's body, forcing a backhand block. When it sailed long, an ecstatic Shang Kun leapt into Franzinska's arms, a violation of pandemic protocol to which he could credibly plead temporary insanity. "I am lost now," said the conquering hero Franzinska. "It was incredible match... When I saw that Shang Kun was fighting and coming back from 0-2 down... we were on fire. My last match was also difficult. I never had beat Omar before." Whether or not one believes in magic, 1.FC Saarbrücken pulled off quite a trick to reach the semifinals in Düsseldorf. It's the inescapable conclusion.

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