The Winter fairy tale continues, even though temperatures now promise feelings of spring. This holds, at least in table tennis. For at the table, true spring feelings are felt by one above all: Sabine Winter. The national player was always incredibly quick on her feet and could achieve some nice successes with the German team. For example, becoming a two-time European champion in doubles. However Winter hovered in the singles world rankings around 60 and below until the end of 2024. She therefore thought about gradually winding down her international career.
Then, at 32, Winter tried something that amateur players with little talent and no fine touch often attempt: disrupting the opponents’ game with a disruptive rubber. Pips-out or anti-top rubbers give the returned balls unusual trajectories, which drives some opponents in the lower leagues to despair.
Some nerves fail even at hearing that the opponent is using a ‘Noppe’ in play. Among professionals, these disruptive rubbers are frowned upon, since most players—aside from a few outstanding defenders—rely on fast attacking rubbers. So too did Sabine Winter – until, in her advanced athletic age, she dared her unusual experiment.
What initially seemed like a last-ditch attempt turned out to be a breakthrough. Since December 2024, Winter’s path has known only one direction: steeply upward. The Dachau-based Bundesliga player radically adjusted her playing style, integrated a backhand anti-top rubber into her uncompromising forehand attack—and she surged forward.
Bronze at the World Cup in Macau
The latest highlight followed at Easter at the World Cup in Macau, where she celebrated the biggest success of her career to date with bronze. Sabine Winter is now ranked world number nine for the first time. Only eight Asians are ahead of her, including six Chinese.
„I never would have thought this possible. This is all completely crazy,“ she says, incredulous at her new benchmark. Even in Singapore, when she became the first non-Asian to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament, she only briefly thought of the Top Ten. More important to her was to „simply to try to further develop my new playing system and get the most out of the system for as long as I can play at this level in top form.“
Winter, now 33, tinkers and refines her new system. „I definitely want to keep the fun of experimenting,“ she emphasizes. It gives her „great pleasure to find out what could fit and what not.“ With the optimized mix of disruptive balls and forehand assault, most have found their true labor of love. This is both confirmation and motivation for Winter. „If there are successes that result from it, like now with the bronze medal at the World Cup or the top-ten ranking, that’s great and naturally motivates me even more.“
In Macau, Winter underscored impressively that she now belongs to the world elite. Until the semifinal she had given away only one set and defeated two strong Chinese players, Wang Yidi and Qin Yuxuan. Only the world No. 1 and defending champion Sun Yingsha stopped her run in the semifinal with a 0:4.
Only the Beginning …
Am Wert der Medaille ändert das nichts. „Der World Cup mag zwar nicht besser besetzt sein als ein Grand Smash – aber es ist und bleibt der World Cup“, unterstreicht Winter. „Es ist komplett verrückt, dass ich mit einer Bronzemedaille aus Macau nach Hause fliegen darf. Das macht mich sehr stolz und sehr glücklich.“
Als erst zweite Deutsche nach ihrer ehemaligen Doppelpartnerin Petrissa Solja 2015 gewann die 33-Jährige beim World Cup eine Medaille. „,Peti’ ist eine sehr gute Freundin. Ich bin sehr glücklich und stolz, dass ich diejenige sein darf, die ihr mit dieser Medaille nachfolgt“, freut sich Winter.
Während ihre talentiertere Doppelpartnerin bei einem EM-Sieg schon mit 28 Jahren resignierte und Solja ihre Karriere früh beendete, wagte Winter einen riskanten Neuanfang mit 32. Für ihre Fans steht dabei fest: Das Wintermärchen im Tischtennis ist noch lange nicht auserzählt.
