The German national table tennis player Patrick Franziska caused a big surprise at the premiere of the WTT Champion in Budapest, which was endowed with 500,000 dollars.
The world number 14.
from 1. FC Saarbrücken defeated the Olympic champion and three-time individual world champion Ma Long from China in the round of 16 on Wednesday evening in 3:2 sets.
"It's definitely the biggest win of my career," said the 30-year-old after his first win against the world's best player of the past ten years.
Franziska prevailed in an exciting duel with 3:2 (11:7, 7:11, 11:6, 4:11, 12:10).
Boll and Qiu are eliminated
Previously, he had never won a set in two comparisons with the three-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist in 2016 and 2020.
"I'm still shaking all over and I have to get over it first," said the 30-year-old, who will play against his Saarbrücken club colleague Darko Jorgic (Slovenia) on Thursday for a place in the semi-finals.
In the second of three tournaments in a row in Budapest, European champion Timo Boll and German shooting star Dang Qiu (both Borussia Düsseldorf) were eliminated.
Boll lost against the Chinese Lin Gaoyuan with 0:3.
The world number 11.
Qiu lost to Tomokazu Harimoto from Japan, who played for TTC Neu-Ulm in the next season, with the same result.
“That was a pretty clear story, except maybe in the first movement.
All in all, I was just physically too slow and too inflexible,” said Boll afterwards.