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.