Borussia Düsseldorf (1-1, -1) entered Friday’s match against SV Werder Bremen (2-0, +4) with plenty of momentum. They ended last year as regular-season record champions. They added American star Kanak Jha to aid them on their quest for their 34th title. They just came off a 3-1 victory against Dima Ovtcharov’s TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell, starting their season exactly as they wanted.
None of that mattered to Werder, who gave Düsseldorf the first shutout of the 2025-26 Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) regular season.
Neither Jha nor Dang Qiu played for Düsseldorf in this match, making Yongyin Li the club’s first player. Li opened the match against Werder’s Mattias Falck (2) and exploded for an 11-2 victory in their first game. But Li failed to capture that same dominance over his next three games, losing to Falck in all of them by just three points or less (11-2, 8-11, 9-11, 12-14).
Anton Källberg (2) began the second set for Düsseldorf just as Li did, earning a statement 11-4 victory against Werder’s first player, Kirill Gerassimenko. Källberg also ended that game close to how Li did, losing to Gerassimenko in three straight games, all by three points or less (11-4, 8-11, 10-12, 9-11).
The third set did not have a similar start for Düsseldorf’s Borgar Haug (3), who couldn’t stop Werder’s Irving Bertrand from taking an 11-3 victory in the first game. And despite a close second game, it was all Bertrand, who shut out Haug to shut out Düsseldorf for their second win of the season (3-11, 10-12, 5-11).
This victory makes Werder the first team to win multiple matches this season, propelling them to the top of the 2025-26 standings as of the start of Week 2.
Werder will look to extend their winning streak against TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt, who also boasts an undefeated record, on Sept. 17. Düsseldorf will play their Week 3 match against ASC Grünwettersbach on Sept. 16.
