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BERLIN, Nov. 17-- Despite latest defeats against Timo Boll and Dimitri Ovtcharov, China remain the world's number one in table tennis, German national coach Joerg Rosskopf is convinced. "We managed to close the gap a little bit, but I don't expect China to waver and fall," the 48-year-old former German international commented. Rosskopf expects China to be the big favorites for the team World Cup in Sweden in May 2018. "They will intensify their training effort from January on. Ma Long, Fan Zhendong, and Xu Xin are still hard to beat when in the best shape," Rosskopf added. Rosskopf is aware of the changes in Chinese table tennis. Due to the changes regarding the coaching staff, "China were sort of without a clear system. Players had a longer break and missed competition on a high level," Rosskopf emphasized. Chinese top performers "do get older and sometimes suffer from injury," the German coach said. But Ma Long and Xu Xin are still on a very high-quality level. Despite the Chinese world class level, German performers such as 36-year-old Boll and 29-year-old Ovtcharov are comfortable with the latest series of success. Boll beat the Olympic Champion and World Champion Ma Long and twice Asian Champion Lin Gaoyuan. When winning the German Open in Magdeburg, Ovtcharov beat Yan An and, for the first time in his career World Championship runner-up Fan Zhendong. Boll and Ovtcharov ride the wave and gain more and more confidence, Rosskopf commented. | 
