You know you're good when you have to leave the country to find competition. If you succeed in wrapping your mind around this rare and enviable predicament, stretch your imagination another order of magnitude. What if you were so dominant that not only your country but your continent failed to challenge you? (Australians are exempted from this mind exercise.) Such is the case for two members of TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen, one of the top table tennis teams in the German Bundesliga. Captain Hugo Calderano, the "Thrill from Brazil" ranked sixth in the world, is the standard bearer for Latin America. Only his countryman Gustavo Tsuboi, world #36, joins him in the global top 50. It is even worse for the USA's reigning champion, Kanak Jha, world #28. His closest competitor in North America is Canada's Jeremy Hazin, world #156. (The International Table Tennis Federation subsumes Mexico under "Latin America" rather than "North America," otherwise Marcos Madrid would be Jha's closest continental competitor at #76.) Thus, Ochsenhausen has become a sort of support group for talented young players who have outgrown their continents. Jha, used to bearing the weighty captain's hat for Team USA, is growing accustomed to playing a supporting role behind Calderano and world #20 Simon Gauzy of France. He sometimes struggles to find his footing, as in his 0-3 loss to chopper Xi Wang of ASV Grunwettersbach. Nonetheless, the strength of the Ochsenhausen team carried them to a 3-1 victory, further cementing their playoff position. While Jha and Calderano gain invaluable international experience, Ochsenhausen benefits from the influx of anomalous talent from the western hemisphere. Ochsenhausen is currently ranked second in the Bundesliga, and last week scored a win over Borussia Düsseldorf, the first-place team led by all-time German champion Timo Boll. With the four-team playoffs just weeks away, each team will be highly motivated to establish its place in the history books. For Kanak Jha and Hugo Calderano, it was worth the trip across the Atlantic just to get a good game.

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