No Timo Boll? No problem.
There’s a new star for Borussia Düsseldorf (1-0), and his name is Kanak Jha. The club’s recent offseason acquisition commanded an overpowering 2-1 victory over TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell (0-1) in his Düsseldorf debut, proving that the reigning runner-ups are still worthy opponents following Boll’s retirement.
Jha was designated as Düsseldorf’s first player for this away game, meaning that Dang Qiu (2nd player) opened Düsseldorf’s season against the home team’s prized offseason signing, Jonathan Groth (1st player). Groth would have to wait to win his first-ever game for RhönSprudel, as Qiu took three easy victories (11-6, 11-4, 11-7) to put Dusseldorf on the board.
Jha then took the table for Düsseldorf with momentum against Fanbo Meng (2nd player). He picked up right where Qiu left off, sweeping Meng without giving up more than five points in a single game (4-11, 5-11, 3-11).
At that point, this game looked like Düsseldorf’s to lose. Their 66 points in two sets more than doubled RhönSprudel's 29, who had yet to win a single game out of six.
But RhönSprudel's Dima Ovtcharov (3) wouldn’t let Dusseldorf shut his team out. Yongyin Li (3) certainly tried to finish off RhönSprudel by pushing his set against Ovtcharov to five games, but Ovtcharov persevered through some very close games to give his club their first set win of their season (11-7, 8-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6).
Set four was next. The teams’ two number ones would face off against one another. Could Groth redeem his first set loss to keep RhönSprudel's hopes alive? Or would Jha win Düsseldorf's first match of the season?
In the end, it wasn’t much of a contest. Groth pushed Jha past 11 in Game 1 and took the victory in Game 2, but Jha regained his momentum with a Game 3 victory, which he used to pummel Groth in Game 4 and seal the match (11-13, 11-6, 8-11, 4-11).
Jha, the top-ranked American men’s singles player in the world (No. 21, ITTF), left TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt in November to join the 2024-25 record champions on their quest for their 34th championship. Replacing Boll as the team’s first player is no easy feat, but the first game of the 25-year-old’s Düsseldorf career suggested that the club is still in good hands.
Dusseldorf will play their first home match of the 2025-26 season against SV Werder Bremen (0-0) on Sept. 5, while RhönSprudel will travel to Dortmund and play BV Borussia 09 Dortmund (1-0) on Sept. 7.
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