"Cancel my subscription to the resurrection," sang Jim Morrison of The Doors in the song "When the Music's Over," as if merely managing Monday's mundane matters with his secretary. While Morrison now rests in Paris, one of his countrymen is trying to break on through in Germany. Four-time US men's singles champion Kanak Jha (pictured, left), ranked 30th in the world, has cemented himself as one of the top players in the German Tischtennis (Table Tennis) Bundesliga. Playing for TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen, Jha has the second-best individual record in the league at 8-2. Only Sweden's Anton Källberg, playing for perennial powerhouse Borussia Düsseldorf, boasts a better individual resume at 8-0. Ochsenhausen and Düsseldorf were among the 16 teams suiting up for the German Table Tennis Cup on Sunday. Top-seeded Düsseldorf advanced as expected, 3-0 over #5 TTC Neu-Ulm. Ochsenhausen, seeded second with a 6-1 record, had a significantly steeper slope to scale against FC Saarbrücken TT, seeded fourth but only one game behind in the standings at 5-2. Saarbrücken seized the early advantage in the best-of-five match when Darko Jorgic of Slovenia (pictured, right) swept Ochsenhausen captain Simon Gauzy of France, 3-0. Kanak Jha looked to level matters against Saarbrücken's captain, Patrick Franziska of Germany, but fell both into passivity and in four games. Trailing 0-2, Ochsenhausen drew new hope from Samuel Kulczycki, who dispatched Tomas Polansky of the Czech Republic in four games. This set up a crucial fourth match between Jha and Jorgic, looking to extend and end matters, respectively. Remembering from his fiasco with Franziska that passive blocking is no way to beat a world-class player, Jha seized the initiative and won the first game handily, 11-5. The world #23 Jorgic soon found his footing, however, and counter-drubbed Jha, 11-6. The pivotal third game went to deuce four times before Jorgic claimed the advantage, 15-13. Down but not out, Jha leveled the match with an emphatic 11-3 win in the fourth. With Ochsenhausen's tournament life on the line, Jha faced immense pressure. Perhaps sweating a little under the heat, Jha soon fell into an 0-6 hole in the do-or-die fifth game. The two-time Olympian dug deep, however, and rallied to tie the match at deuce. Jorgic, leading 11-10, banana-flicked Jha's serve right back to sender. Jha's backhand missed long, an all-too-abrupt end to a brilliant comeback. Saarbrücken now advances to play SV Werder Bremen in the quarterfinals, all because Darko Jorgic cancelled his subscription to Kanak Jha's resurrection. Let's just hope he didn't forget to turn out the lights.

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