Lange speaks Valentin Baus after his match against the Turk Abdullah Öztürk with national coach Volker Ziegler. It was only supposed to be the second of four knockout matches for the German para table tennis player – nobody had doubted that he would take part in the final. For Baus himself, the clear goal was also to defend his title.
Completely unexpectedly, Valentin Baus lost the quarterfinals in the individual event on Monday evening in class 5 and must now let go of his hopes of a second gold medal at the Paralympics in Paris say goodbye.
The German had started the match well, winning the first set comfortably 11:6. The second set began in a similar way: Baus was three points ahead and let out a cheer after every ball he won. Öztürk shortened the gap again, but Baus kept his nerve and secured the second match point.
This put Öztürk under pressure: if Baus won another set, the game would be over and the German would have won. The Turk, however, was unimpressed and narrowly won the next set 11:9. Baus, who had previously been so dominant, kept making mistakes, which Öztürk knew how to exploit. Baus also had to admit defeat in the fourth set, and the game developed more and more in his opponent’s favor.
The decision was only made in the final fifth set. But the turnaround was not to come – Öztürk came in well and earned seven match points in an eight-point series. In the end, Baus lost the set clearly 11:4. The dream of a second Paralympic gold was shattered, and Valentin Baus’ trip to Paris was over. “You can never plan medals, but he was in good form,” said a visibly disappointed Volker Ziegler: “He proved that in the first two sets, but then there was this hole until the end of the game.”
Valentin Baus did not want to comment after the game – the disillusionment was still too great. But Baus is not returning to Germany empty-handed. On Saturday he had already won the silver medal in the doubles together with Thomas Schmidberger.
