The great Timo Boll is heading to Manchester to compete at England’s first ever WTT event next month!

The German superstar (above) is in the field for the WTT Feeder Manchester from February 1-4, having fallen to No 192 in the world rankings. This is a result of missing almost exactly a year of table tennis through injury before making his comeback in October.

In an age where the word legend is overused, Boll is one of the few to merit the label. He has four Olympic medals – team silvers in 2008 and 2020 and bronzes at London 2012 and in 2016 – as well as nine World Championships medals across singles, team and doubles events between 2004 and 2021. He also has seven World Cup singles medals, including two golds.

At a European level, he holds a record number of honours, having been continental singles champion no fewer than eight times between 2002 and 2021. His total number of European golds stands at an incredible 20 – and that is without including three European Games golds.

This is a rare chance to see the great man competing in England and the possibility – depending on the draw – of watching him play against England’s Liam Pitchford, Paul Drinkhall or Tom Jarvis, who have also all entered.

Among the other overseas stars set to appear are Anders Lind of Denmark (WR 31), Spain’s Alvaro Robles (WR 44) and Tiago Apolonia or Portugal (WR 48), along with a host of other top-100 players.

In the women’s side of the draw, USA’s Lily Zhang is the highest-ranked player at No 45, while fellow top-50 players Xia Lian Ni (LUX) and Britt Eerland (NED) are also in the field, alongside England’s No 1, Tin-Tin Ho.

Competitors from countries as diverse as India, Mexico, South Korea, Chinese Taipei and several European nations will be there.