Bad Homburg signs Finn Luu and Kazuki Hamada for TTBL push

Bad Homburg did more than add two names to a roster on April 16. By bringing in Finn Luu for the full upcoming season and Kazuki Hamada for the second half, TTC OE Clarity-TEL. Syst. Bad Homburg gave its TTBL lineup a clearer shape: keep the right-handed depth intact, replace a departing match-winner, and build a squad that can survive the league grind without losing its scoring edge.

The fit is obvious once Jo Yokotani’s exit is folded into the picture. Bad Homburg said the 24-year-old will leave at the end of the season and return to Japan’s T.League, closing a spell in which he became an integral part of the side. TTBL pointed to Yokotani’s role in the club’s 3:2 win over Ochsenhausen on April 14, a reminder that this was not a bench piece leaving, but a player who could swing a tight tie. His profile, right-handed and shakehand, also tells part of the story: Bad Homburg is not changing its basic table structure, it is trying to preserve it while upgrading the level around him.

Luu looks like the immediate anchor of that plan. Born in 2004, the Australian national team player is currently listed at No. 1 in Oceania and No. 46 in the world on the ITTF Oceania rankings page, with 635 points. That kind of ranking matters in the Bundesliga because it points to a player who can be trusted against established TTBL opposition, not just deployed as a development project. Bad Homburg also noted that Luu already has international WTT experience, which makes him a practical scoring option for a club that cannot afford passengers in a packed schedule.

Hamada gives the roster a different kind of value. He joins only for the second half of the campaign, which suggests Bad Homburg sees him as a later-season weapon rather than a week-to-week experiment. The Japanese right-hander already has a youth pedigree that stretches back to ITTF events in 2017 and 2018, including a junior boys’ doubles title with Shunsuke Togami and a boys’ singles semifinal run at the World Cadet Challenge in Tottori. That history says something important for TTBL planning: Hamada is not being asked to learn the level from scratch when he arrives.

The signings also sit inside a broader reshuffle in Bad Homburg. Slobodan Grujic took over as head coach for the new season, replacing retiring club legend Helmut Hampl, who will remain sporting director in the Taunus region. Put together, the coach change, Yokotani’s departure, and the arrivals of Luu and Hamada point to more than a survival move. Bad Homburg is building for a deeper TTBL run, with international experience and roster continuity doing the heavy lifting.