The Fan Zhendong era of 1. FC Saarbrücken - TT (1-1, +0) has officially arrived.
Saarbrücken earned its first victory of the 2025-26 Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) season on Saturday with a 3-1 match win against TSV Bad Königshofen (0-2, -4). This milestone also marks Fan’s first win as a member of the club, a match where he won both of the sets he played in.
As the first player on the away team, Fan would have to wait before taking the table. He didn’t need to start for Saarbrücken to make a statement though, as Patrick Franziska (2) swept Andre Bertelsmeier (1) and put Saarbrücken on top (11-8, 11-8, 11-7).
Saarbrücken entered the second set of the match with momentum on their side. Who better than the Olympic gold medalist to capitalize on that momentum?
Fan took the table against Königshofen’s Filip Zeljko (2) and picked up right where Franziska left off, with two quick wins against Zeljko. Zeljko scored just a combined eight points against Fan in those two games, but bounced right back with an 11-7 victory in their third game. That wasn’t enough for Königshofen, as Fan finished the set with an 11-6 victory and a +15 point differential to win his first-ever set as a TTBL player (11-5, 11-3, 7-11, 11-6).
Königshofen stopped Saarbrücken’s hot streak with a dominant third set from Daniel Habesohn (3). It didn’t appear that way at first, as Habesohn’s two-point victory in Game 1 and six-point loss in Game 2 would suggest that the ball was bouncing off of Saarbrücken’s Eduard Ionescu’s paddle better. But Habesohn persisted with another two-point victory in Game 3, and he finished the set with a five-point victory to put Königshofen on the match’s scoreboard (11-9, 5-11, 13-11, 11-6).
Saarbrücken wouldn’t let its first lost set of the match crush them. The club was still just one set away from winning their first match of the season. And with the match on the line in the fourth set, Saarbrücken’s newest superstar returned to the table.
Fan and Bertelsmeier traded two-point victories in Games 1 and Games 2. Both with a score of 11-9. These first players fought as though everything was on the line. It was. Bertelsmeier was fighting to keep his team alive for another set. Fan was fighting to ensure that no more would need to be played. Both men carried that fight into an intense Game 3, which ended after Fan scored 15 points. He couldn’t give up now. All he needed was one more game.
Bertelsmeier made it difficult, forcing the game to go beyond 11 points for the second time in a row. But this game would end much quicker. Fan scored his 12th point against Bertelsmeier’s 10 and left the table as a match winner for the first time in his TTBL career (11-9, 9-11, 15-13, 12-10).
Saarbrücken will kick off the third week of the 2025-26 TTBL season when they host BV Borussia 09 Dortmund on Sept. 14, and Königshofen will face Dima Ovtcharov's TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell on Sept. 15.
