Already at the age of four years Timo Boll was playing table tennis and at that time was coached by his father. In 1987 he became a member of the TSV Höchst and played there at association level. At the age of eight years he was discovered by Helmut Hampel, a Hessian trainer who promoted him. In 1990, he started to train at the training centre Pfungstadt and four years later changed to FTG Frankfurt with which he took part in the second division, at which time other associations became attentive of him.
At age 14, Timo Boll took together with Frank Klitzsch the title of the youngest player of the national league. Timo Boll celebrated his first international results during the student European championships in Den Haag 1995, where he won three gold medals. After a second place finish in his first junior European Championship 1996, he won during the following two years the title in the singles, in the doubles and with the team. He finished school with a secondary school level I certificate.
In 2002, Timo Boll joined the ranks of the world top-10 players with his Europe-Top-12-Tournament victory against Vladimir Samsonov. He reached final of the European Table Tennis Championships in Zagreb in the singles, and in doubles with Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth the gold medal. The German team was defeated in the finale by a score of 2–3, by the Swedish team.
With his victory in the Chinese world cup in Jinan (he beat the world champion Wang Liqin and the Olympic champion Kong Linghui clearly), Timo Boll finished the year at first position in the world rankings in January, 2003. During the European-Championship 2003, Vladimir Samsonov led the Belorussian team to the final victory against the German. He was too strong for Timo Boll. After his elimination in the singles world championship in the second round, he lost the rank of the world's number one table tennis player.
In December 2006, Timo Boll signed a 3 year contract with Borussia Dusseldorf. Apart from the financial weakness of his old team and various other considerations, Timo Boll moved for the good training possibilities, in view of the upcoming Olympic Games 2008 and because of the possibility to be able to train there with his doubles partner Christian Süß.
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 first-seeded player in 2008, Boll defended his three European Champion titles from the year before.
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player
Timo Boll Table Tennis Player