Timo Boll, one of the European's finest Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll is a German professional table tennis player, who is ranked number one in the German Table Tennis National League and number two in the World Rankings as on April 2011.
Born in March 8, 1981, he started playing table tennis under coaching of his father. At the age of six, Timo played at association level as he became the member of TSV Hochst. He was discovered by Helmut Hampel in 1989, who promoted Timo.
Timo Boll, along with Frank Klitzsch, won the youngest player of the year title in the national league. The first international celebration by him was during the Student European Championships in 1995, where he won the gold medal.
Timo finished second in the European Championship in 1996 and has won the title in singles, doubles and teams. He could not concentrate on the education along with the game and therefore he had to quit school with a level one secondary school certificate.
Timo Boll was soon recognised by the world as one of the best table tennis players in the world. He has continuously been ranked in the top 10 world rankings since 2002. He was World Number One at the start of 2003 and regained the position back in 2011.
Timo is currently Germany’s top ranked player and has participated in the entire ITTF Pro-Tour event since 1996. Timo could not prove himself until 2001 in Sao Paulo, Brazil when he took the Men’s Singles title.
Since 2001, Timo has won Austrian Open in 2002, Japanese Open in 2003, German Open, Polish Open and Austrian Open in 2004, Japanese Open and Swedish Open in 2005, German Open, Polish Open and Chinese Open in 2006, Polish Open, German Open and Austrian Open in 2008, Qatar Open, Polish Open and German Open in 2009 and Japanese Open in 2010.
Timo Boll has also won the Table Tennis World Cup tournaments in 2002 and 2005 and was a runner-up in 2008. Timo is yet to play in the World Championship's final of Men’s Singles, however he has been participating in the event since 1997. In 2005, Timo made it to the final of Men’s Doubles in World’s Championship, but was unable to take the cup home.
Germany’s team of Timo Boll, Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Christian Suss claimed the Silver medal in 2008 Olympics Games at Beijing, China. Timo unfortunately, has not been able to clear the quarter-final stage of the Olympics despite appearing in 2000, 2004 and 2008.
Butterfly is the official sponsor for Timo and he extended an agreement with Butterfly in 2007. Timo signed the contract in 1993 initially and is in contract with Butterfly until 2015.
Timo commented on his sponsorship as he said, “The Butterfly Company has always been my sponsor since I was a cadet and I have always been most satisfied with the agreement. We have a great deal of trust in each other. That’s why I’m very happy to continue the agreement.”
He further added, “I know that I have top quality equipment as a result of Butterfly’s technology and know-how. This is absolutely essential for me to play at world level. It really helps my confidence.”
Timo plays with Tenergy 05 rubber with 2.1 mm sponge since the ban on speed glue came into effect during 2008 Olympic Games. Timo commented on his new equipment and said, “Overall, the blade possesses a similar character to the Timo Boll Spirit, which I played before. As you can see, I’m handling my, material really well.”
The left-handed table tennis legend currently plays for the German side, Borussia Dusseldorf, after he left TTV Gonnern in 2007. Borussia Dusseldorf is supported by Butterfly and has won more Bundesliga events than any other team. They have won European Champions league in 2008/2009, 2009/2010 and 2010/2011.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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