The LIEBHERR 2017 World Championships in Düsseldorf from 29 May to 5 June represent an important milestone for Germany's national teams. In the singles, doubles and mixed doubles events, the DTTB men and women want to compete for the top positions in the tournament. German men’s head coach Jörg Roßkopf explains in the interview whom of his players are in the pole positions for Düsseldorf and he reveals details how the internal DTTB race for his players to participate works.

After the Olympics is before the home World Championships. When does the internal race start for the positions in singles at the LIEBHERR 2017 World Championships in Düsseldorf?
Jörg Roßkopf: The race for the final starts of our home game has begun with the Czech Open in Olomouc in early September.

What will the criteria be for a participation in singles, doubles and mixed doubles? Will there be an elimination tournament like in China?
Roßkopf: There will be an internal race for the players. When the singles players are chosen us coaches will decide about doubles and mixed doubles.
In men’s singles there are 4 participants I have are already fixed: Timo Boll, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Bastian Steger and Patrick Franziska. After they won the bronze medal in Rio they deserve to play in Düsseldorf. I discussed this with the whole team beforehand. For the 5^th position there will be an internal race between 6 players: Ruwen Filus, Steffen Mengel, Ricardo Walther, Benedikt Duda, Patrick Baum and Dang Qiu. Many of them have already shown good results in the past, but we have to confront them with new challenges. The pressure on them has to grow, and they must learn to deal with it. In the past at one time or another, the pressure for the players became too high in crucial situations. At Olympic Games, the pressure is even bigger which they then have to withstand. Through World Championships in front of their home crowd I have to prepare my players also for pressure situations at future Olympics.
But back to the internal race: All 6 can gain points during training camps as well as official tournaments. Even during our training we will play small tournaments and award points to the winners. In addition, there are various official tournaments where they get the chance to gain more points. The player who scores most points will participate at the Düsseldorf WTTC. He will then have proved to be the most successful of the 6 competitors for the past 9 months. The 6^th place is a wildcard that I allocate myself to a one of my players.

The mixed doubles is an a little 'unpopular' competition for your men's squad. Will this change for the home game in Düsseldorf?
 Roßkopf: We will of course keep this 'unpopular' competition in mind, not least because it might be that the mixed doubles is introduced at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo as an additional competition.
We will try and create the best possible line-up in singles, doubles and mixed doubles for Düsseldorf. We will certainly practise mixed doubles in advance, but first have to wait who will be in the line-up in men's and women's events.

You and your family used to live in Düsseldorf for ages; you successfully played for Borussia Düsseldorf back then. Will World Championships in this town be a kind of special reunion with your former home for you?
Roßkopf: I love Düsseldorf. These were the days when I matured and became a world-class player. My family and I felt very much at home in Düsseldorf when we lived there from 1986 to 2000, and the Borussia-family, too, will always be an important part of me. My family still likes visiting Düsseldorf, we travel there frequently. I have many friends there and regularly go there as our national training centre is based in Düsseldorf.
The 2012 World Championships in Dortmund were of course something special because we became World Doubles Champions there back in 1989. But the 2017 World Championships will be even more special for my family and me.

The ticket sales for the LIEBHERR 2017 WTTC in Düsseldorf have just started in mid-September. What do you tell people why they should not miss this home game?
Roßkopf: I’m very sure that the sales will go wild and the tickets will be sold out quickly. You should never miss World Championships at home! There were significant accomplishments in the past, every time we hosted European or World Championships in Germany: In Stuttgart in 2009, Wu Jiaduo became European Champion in women’s singles, in 1992 also in Stuttgart I won the men’s singles title. At the 1989 WTTC in Dortmund we won gold in men’s doubles and at the World Team Championships in Bremen in 2006 and in Dortmund in 2012 our men’s team won bronze and silver medals. The results have always been excellent. As you see: Don’t ever miss home World Championships because a lot of surprises can happen there for your host team!