It’s the best placement in 35 years, and yet they’ll be tearing their hair out a little at TC Großhesselohe when they think back to that ill-fated July 8th. Three out of six games were lost against TC Bredeney, who ended up third in a match tiebreak – it was to be the only defeat this season in the Bundesliga, but the decisive one. For the third time in the club’s history, Großhesselohe has come second after 1986 and 1987, behind Düsseldorf. On the last Bundesliga matchday, a 6-0 win at TC Grün-Weiss Mannheim was achieved even without the top seven on the seeding list. Großhesselohe’s Bundesliga sports director Bernard Eßmann said: “After disappointments in the first games of the season, we didn’t make the really big hit. But we’re happy that we were able to improve again in our third year in the Bundesliga after promotion.”
At the end of the season, a 4-2 victory at bottom of the table Ludwigshafen was enough for the Düsseldorfers to win the German championship title for the first time in the club’s history. It was also very close at the summit meeting of the two strongest teams in the league (Grosshesselohe has eight top 100 players on the seeding list): Four of the six games only ended in the third set, in the end it was 3:3. Dusseldorf only managed to get another draw and finally had a nose in front.
“There’s a good chance that I can hopefully be of some help again next year,” says Kohlschreiber
The oldie Philipp Kohlschreiber, who recently retired from the ATP tour, was one of the most reliable point providers for the people of Munich. Now the soon to be 39-year-old wants to put the bat in the corner, but can well imagine getting involved in the Bundesliga again next season. “I’m happy that the season went so well and that I won so much,” said Kohlschreiber. “There’s a good chance that I can hopefully be of some help again next year.”
The second Bavarian Bundesliga club, TSV 1860 Rosenheim, will also play first class in the coming season. The team around top player Nikolos Basilashvili, handicapped by many injuries this year, ended up in eighth place after two wins, three draws and four defeats. With the two final draws against Krefeld on Friday and Neuss on Sunday, Rosenheim was able to keep Krefeld and Ludwigshafen at a distance. The very last double against Neuss, which Aljaz Bedene/Lorenzo Giustino only won 15:13 in the match tiebreak, illustrated how tight it was in the table basement.
