Timo Boll

Junior success

At age 14, Boll held the title of youngest player in the national league (A title he shared with Frank Klitzsch). He celebrated his first international success during the Table Tennis European Youth Championships in The Hague in 1995, where he won three gold medals. In 1996, he was a runner up in the Junior Boys Singles of that same competition, but then went on to win the singles title in 1997 and 1998, as well the doubles title in 1998. He finished school with a secondary school level I certificate.

Early International success (2002–2003)

In 2002, Timo Boll became the first German player to win the Europe-Top-12-Tournament beating Vladimir Samsonov in the final. Boll also became the best German player, according to the ITTF Rankings, overtaking Jörg Roßkopf. During the European Table Tennis Championships in Zagreb, Boll won both the singles and the doubles with Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth. The German team featuring Boll was defeated in the final by the Swedish team with a score of 2–3. With his victory in the 2002 Table Tennis World Cup held in Jinan, China (where he beat the world champion Wang Liqin and the Olympic champion Kong Linghui), Timo Boll finished the year as the highest ranked player in the world. During the European Championship of 2003, Vladimir Samsonov led the Belarusian team to victory in the final against the German team. After his elimination during the second round of the singles competition, Boll lost his number one position in the world rankings.

Injury and comeback (2004–2006)

Back problems troubled Boll during the first half of 2004, which hindered his preparation for the 2004 Summer Olympics. Here, he was outclassed in the quarterfinal by Jan-Ove Waldner. After a period marked by public criticism, Timo Boll won tournament victories in Poland, Austria, and Germany. He also reached semi-finals of the Pro Tour in Peking, where he was edged out 3–4 by Ma Lin. Early in the 2005 season, Boll's back problems struck again; nevertheless, he won the silver medal in doubles at the World Championship, playing with Christian Süß. He was awarded the Fair Play Award from the ITTF after a referee's decision was reversed in favor of his opponent during the knockout rounds of that competition, leading to a defeat. The year ended with Boll winning the Champions League with TTV RE-BAU Gönnern [de], and the Table Tennis World Cup in Liège in Belgium, in which he defeated all three Chinese first-class players. In 2007, he won the European Championship in singles, doubles, and in the team competition.

Draft to Borussia Düsseldorf

In December 2006, Timo Boll signed a 3-year contract with Borussia Düsseldorf [de], the current championship record-holding team, due to his former team's financial situation and loss of key players. Boll also moved in light of the upcoming Olympic Games 2008 and the possibility to train there with his doubles partner, Christian Süß. His 3-year contract with Borussia Düsseldorf began on 1 July 2007, with stipulations allowing him to miss certain Bundesliga matches in order to focus on international tournaments. His contract was later extended until 2022.

Climb to World No. 1 and further success (2007–2015)

In 2007, he won the European Championship singles, doubles, and in the team competition. He was also active as a guest player in the Chinese Super League.

During the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, he participated again with the German national team. After victories over Croatia, Canada, Singapore and Japan in preliminary rounds and the semi-final, the team lost 0–3 against the host Chinese team. As the top-ranked player in 2008, Boll successfully defended his three European Champion titles from the previous year.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Boll lost in the last 16 to Adrian Crisan but the German team won the bronze medal in the men's team event, losing to China in semi-finals but beating Hong Kong in the bronze medal deciding match.

Back problems led Boll to not participate in the 2008 and 2009 World Championships in China and Japan respectively. At the 2008 World Cup in Liège, he scored a semi-final victory over Ma Long but lost out in the final against Wang Hao, winning a silver medal.

At the beginning of 2011, Timo Boll was back at the top of the world rankings, having beaten Ma Lin in the Volkswagen Cup final. In April 2011, he was replaced as number 1 by Wang Hao.

At the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships in Rotterdam, Boll won his first singles medal in that competition, a bronze medal, after being beaten 4:1 by world champion, Zhang Jike. During this championship, Boll declined to compete in doubles and team matches, focussing instead on the singles competition. Playing for the German national team, Boll received silver medals at both the Team World Championships 2010 in Moscow and the 2012 championships in Dortmund, losing out both times to the Chinese team.

Knee injury and comeback (2015–2016)

Boll kept his good form at the Chinese Super League in 2015, obtaining a result of 7 wins and 5 losses. Due to a knee injury, Boll opted for an operation to pre-empt a more serious injury. The surgery kept him out of action for an extended period of time. After resting from the surgery, Boll qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

At the Olympic Singles event, Boll lost against Quadri Aruna in the round of 32. At the Team event, Boll along with partners Bastian Steger and Dimitrij Ovtcharov won the bronze medal at the team event.

Continued Success (2017–)

Boll also won the silver medal at the 2017 World Cup, defeating Lin Gaoyuan in the quarterfinals, Ma Long in the semi-finals but losing to teammate Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the finals. He won the silver medal in the following World Cup in 2018, losing to Fan Zhendong in the finals.

Boll won another eight titles at the European Table Tennis Championships in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2018.

Timo Boll will represent Germany in the men's singles event at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where he hopes to medal.

2021-2024

In June, Boll defeated Anton Kallberg in the quarter-finals of the European Table Tennis Championships. After the match, Boll said it was one of the best matches he had played in the last year or two as he felt that he was agile and thinking well. Boll then defeated Mattias Falck in the semi-finals and Dimitij Ovtcharov in the finals to clinch his record-extending eighth European Championship. After the event, Boll remarked that he was pleasantly surprised by the championship and that he was glad to be back on top after having a particularly bad last year.

In July, two weeks before the Tokyo Olympics, Timo Boll withdrew from an internal German Olympic Scrimmage due to a hip injury. Boll lost to Jeoung Youngsik in the round of 16 in the men's singles event at the Tokyo Olympics. Boll helped lead Germany to the men's team finals, and played a critical role as the third match against Taiwan and Japan. Before the finals, Boll stated, "If we can be on our peak, all three of us have the skills and the will to win the match. We will definitely go no limits to prove that this is our time." However, China ended up winning 3–0.

In 2021, Boll won the bronze medal at the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships in Houston, defeating Kanak Jha in the quarterfinals 4-2 before losing to Truls Möregårdh in the semifinals. At the age of 40, this was one of his major career achievement as he had only won one singles medal at World Championships or Olympic Games before (bronze at the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships).

Starting in 2022, Boll suffered from various injuries, such as a rip and a shoulder injury. These complicated his preparation for and even prevented him from competing in major events. Boll participated in the 2022 European Championships in Munich, but lost to Dang Qiu in straight sets. He could not play the 2023 World Championships in Durban at all. As a consequence, he was only ranked 182th in the world in early 2024.

However, 2024 started more promising for Boll. He won the WTT Contender in Doha in January, beating top-12 players Jang Woojin, Lin Yun-Ju, and Tomokazu Harimoto back-to-back. As a consequence, he gained 137 places in the ITTF world rankings, jumping from rank 182 to 45.