Table tennis team German runner-up

A great success was achieved by the table tennis team of KIT Hochschulsport. After the selection had played its way into the final of the best four university teams via the preliminary and intermediate rounds, Christoph Hagmüller, Julian Beisecker, Fabian Rieger, and Jan Müller secured 2nd place in the team competition of the 2012 German University Championships after a great performance.

In the semifinals, the team met the players from Braunschweig, who also regularly qualified for the finals in previous years. The foundation for what was ultimately a commanding 6:1 victory was laid at the start in the doubles. Both Hagmüller/Rieger and Müller/Beisecker won their matches. With the tail wind from two won doubles also the singles could be arranged successfully. Only the top player of Braunschweig had something to counter the consistently strong performance of the Karlsruhe players and secured the honorary point for his team.

In the final, the KIT team met the favorites from WG Landau/Koblenz, who had entered with three 2-league professionals. Our team could tie in with the convincing performance from the semifinal, but despite a high fighting and playing level, our team had to congratulate the ultimately deserved winner from Landau/Koblenz to the title with a final score of 2:6.

With the 2nd place the team has fulfilled its dream to qualify for the European University Championship again after 2010. This event will be held next year in Zonguldak on the Turkish coast.

The good form of the Karlsruhe participants was initially also evident in the singles and doubles competition, in which Patrick Urbanek, Petr Benes and Stephan Rupp also got into the action. All seven players were able to earn one of the first two places in the group phase and thus the entire team moved into the final round. There, however, the players were not lucky and were eliminated unhappily or immediately against high favorites, so that no top ranking was achieved.

On the whole, the weekend can be described as a complete success for the table tennis department of KIT University Sports. The players proved their high level of play also in the broad range and the extensively celebrated runner-up title is the crowning of a strong tournament of our Karlsruhe team.