For Timo Boll it was simply not enough for more than the second individual bronze medal at a World Cup.
Badly affected by a painful abdominal muscle injury, the 40-year-old was defeated on Sunday evening (local time) in Houston by the 19-year-old Swede Truls Möregardh 3: 4 (11: 8, 11: 8, 6:11, 8:11, 12:10, 8:11, 5:11) and missed the meanwhile tangible entry into the final.
"That hurts, but in the end I have to acknowledge that and say: It just couldn't be more," said Boll after the semi-finals in the USA.
“I am happy that I managed to win a medal again at a World Cup.
At almost 41 you can’t really expect that anymore. "
The record European champions from Borussia Düsseldorf have been struggling with abdominal muscle complaints since the beginning of this week of the World Cup.
At the beginning they had hardly affected him at this tournament.
Before the quarter-finals against the 19-year-old American Kanak Jha on Saturday, however, the pain became massive.
"The adrenaline also helped me to pass the pain a bit," he said of the duel with Möregardh.
"When you're in a World Cup semifinals, you just go through with it, give it your all and then see where the body parts are."
Against Möregardh, Boll got into the game well despite the pain and led 2-0.
After the equalization, he also got the set to 3: 2.
If you notice “that the opponent is getting nervous, then you want to grab it somehow and close the bag.
It hurts when you don't make it and you notice that your opponent is simply finding good solutions, ”said Boll.
Third place is not played out separately, the losers of the two semi-finals both get a bronze medal.
So far, Boll had only succeeded in doing this at the World Cup in Rotterdam ten years ago.
He was also at the top of the world rankings four times, won eight European Championship titles and already six World Cup medals with the German team.