For old table tennis champion Timo Boll, the dream of his first Olympic medal in the individual has burst.
The 40-year-old European champion was eliminated for the fourth time in a row in a round of 16 with a 1: 4 (8:11, 11: 7, 7:11, 9:11, 4:11) against South Korean Jeoung Young Sik.
On the other hand, Dimitrij Ovtcharov is still in the race, who will fight for a place in the quarter-finals from 14.30 CEST.
Boll found it difficult to get into the game in what was perhaps his last Olympic individual, and the 1: 1 set compensation did not help him.
In the fourth round he gave a 9: 7 lead and had to admit defeat after 50 minutes.
Against Jeoung's coach Oh Sang Eun, Boll was also eliminated in the round of 16 in Beijing in 2008.
It continues for the former world number one in the team competition that starts on Sunday.
Boll never reached the semi-finals in six Olympic Games, the 2004 quarter-finals being his greatest success.
With the team he won silver once (2008) and bronze twice (2012, 2016).
It remains to be seen whether he will run again in 2024.
Ovtcharov still in competition
Ovtcharov, who was number seven ahead of Boll in Tokyo, made it into the round of 16 for the fourth time in a row at noon.
The bronze medalist from London 2012 started with a 4-0 win against Russian Kirill Skachkov and met Koki Niwa in the evening.
At the 2017 World Cup in Düsseldorf, Ovtcharov lost to the Japanese in the round of 16.
In the women’s category, Han Ying (Düsseldorf / Tarnobrzeg) was the only German to reach the last sixteen.
The 38-year-old defeated Australian Jian Fan Lay, who was ten years her senior, 4-0 and met Feng Tianwei from Singapore in the evening.
The second German starter Petrissa Solja (Langstadt) had already retired on Monday.