Table tennis

“Simple mistakes”: Habesohn loses opening match

Daniel Habesohn(Bild: GEPA)

Daniel Habesohn from Vienna lost 2:4 (-6,14,-9,9,-7,-9) to the seeded Spaniard Alvaro Robles at the Olympic Games in Paris on Monday in a match that was contested in phases. He was the only participant from Austria in the men's table tennis competition. As things stand at the moment, the 38-year-old Habesohn said that adding another Olympic cycle is still on the cards.

Austria's number one did not find his way into the match at the beginning, losing the first set 6:11 after trailing 0:4. In the second round, he managed to lead by one point several times and won the set 16:14 - the Austrian was back in the party. However, a too high error rate ultimately prevented a success.

"That simply can't happen at this level"
"I knew it would be a close match. We know each other well from the German Bundesliga. I'm so unhappy with my performance today, especially on the backhand side. It wasn't stable enough and I made a lot of simple mistakes. That simply can't happen at this level." He was grumpy and angry because he had not performed at his normal level. "I have to blame myself for that."

The atmosphere in the sold-out hall was motivating; the Olympic Games in Paris are good for all sports. Los Angeles would be waiting in four years. "Four years is quite a long time. But if no injury intervenes and if I can keep up my motivation - it's definitely conceivable and it's a topic right now."