Photo: Sven HeiseOn Sunday afternoon, Simon Krax (SV Fun-Ball Dortelweil) celebrated his biggest and most surprising success to date with the German championship title in O19 in Cloppenburg. Together with Jonathan Dresp (BW Wittorf), he defeated the experienced duo Marvin Seidel/Michael Fuchs (both BC Bischmisheim) in two sets in the final and won the gold medal. “It feels incredible that we won. Neither of us expected it. It’s a great feeling that we were able to show what we can do,” Simon confessed in the subsequent interview. The 20-year-old, who trained at the Frankfurt youth base until he graduated from high school, also celebrated runner-up in mixed doubles together with Amelie Lehmann (TSV Trittau).
It was the culmination of an almost perfect tournament. Beforehand, Simon and Jonathan were a bit annoyed about their double draw. The young pairing, which has been playing together since last April, only went into the tournament seeded 5/8th. Accordingly, after two confident victories, the top seeds Bjarne Geiss/Jones Jansen (Wittorf/BC Wipperfeld) were already waiting for the duo in the quarterfinals. After losing the first set, Simon and Jonathan got better and better into the match and turned the game around, which ended with a place in the semi-finals and a new nickname – Air Krax. There they played against the 3/4 seeds Aaron Sonnenschein/Marvin Datko (Wipperfeld/BC Bischmisheim). The two youngsters prevailed again in two rounds and thus made it to the final on Sunday. Here they met a strong and experienced pairing with former Olympian Michael Fuchs and top player Marvin Seidel. But Simon and Jonathan were able to follow the match plan that had been concocted with coach Franklin Wahab with only a small phase of weakness in the second set and ultimately won clearly with 21:13, 21:16, which caused the biggest surprise of the tournament.
“The fact that Simon is a German champion from our ranks who has completed his entire youth sporting career – starting with the NTH U10 – here at the Frankfurt base is something very special and makes us very proud. Simon’s success shows us and the current young players what is possible if you invest together over many years, stick with it and believe in the path,” said the Hessian state coach Franklin Wahab. Simon’s current trainer at the federal base in Mülheim, Johanna Käpplein – who also grew up at the Frankfurt base – was also proud of her “young guns”, whose path, in her view, has only just begun.
Simon also underlined his strong form in the mixed doubles. Placed at 3/4, he also played his way into the final with Amelie Lehmann. The match against their respective doubles partners Dresp/Hübsch in the quarter-finals and the match against second-seeded Leona Michalski/Malik Bourakkadi (TV Refrath) in the semi-finals were outstanding. In the final, they were only able to stand up to world number 29, Marvin Seidel/Thuc Nguyen (Bischmisheim/Wipperfeld), in the first set. Simon and Amelie were still happy about the silver medal.
Three more gold medals went to players from SV Fun-Ball Dortelweil. After Yvonne Li had to miss last year due to injury, she managed to confidently win the women’s singles title in Cloppenburg. “I’m very happy that I was able to get the title back,” said the Dortelweiler happily. Yvonne won a second gold medal in the women’s doubles alongside Isabel Lohau (Bischmisheim). Li stepped in at short notice because Lohaus’ partner had to cancel due to injury. Matthias Kicklitz also won the men’s singles title in a confident manner. The individual specialist did not drop a set during the tournament and was crowned the best German player.
Mareike Bittner (TV Hofheim) made it into the quarterfinals twice. In the singles she celebrated two confident victories before she had to admit defeat against the eventual winner Yvonne Li. In the mixed doubles she managed to make it into the top eight together with Christian Dumler (Dortelweil). The two Hessians had a thrilling round of 16 with Mülheim’s Xenia Kölmel/Alexander Roovers, against whom they had recently lost several times. This time Mareike and Christian had the upper hand by a slim margin of 23:21 in the third round. In the quarter-finals, the final stop was against the top-seeded duo. Louisa Marburger (Hofheim) and Nina Becker (BC Beuel) made it equally exciting in the women’s doubles against the youth national players Juna Bartsch/Marie Fein from NRW. Here too, the third round of the round of 16 went into extra time – here too the better end for the Hofheimer. The duo later lost to the eventual German champions in the quarterfinals. Danial Marzuan (Dortelweil) also reached the top eight in the men’s doubles with David Eckerlin (Wipperfeld) and had to admit defeat to the finalists Fuchs/Seidel.
