Benedikt DUDA is the winner of the tenth Duesseldorf Masters. The man from Bergneustadt secured the tournament victory with his second final victory in seven games over the Egyptian Omar ASSAR. Numbers 39 and 38 of the world had already played the final of the sixth Masters against each other in July. On Friday and Sunday the Masters final will now see a big showdown with eight world-class players. The two final round days can be watched on 21.8. (from 5 pm) and 23.8. (from 11 am) in live streaming on Sportdeutschland.TV Borussia-TV and on tischtennis.de.
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In a high-class final Benedikt DUDA secured the title of the tenth Masters Edition with 13:11 11:13 4:11 11:4 11:6 6:11 and 11:8 ahead of Omar ASSAR. The multiple African champion was in a Masters final for the third time but after his previous defeats against Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and Benedikt DUDA he was unsuccessful this time as well. Although ASSAR initially fended off two match points in the deciding game at 6-10 the Bergneustadt player’s third attack attempt was successful.
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DUDA was happy about his second title win which in the final spurt also allowed him to overtake the long leading Dang QIU (Gruenwettersbach) in the Masters overall standings: “I am very satisfied with my performance. Against Omar it’s always a difficult match for me. His timing matches my balls very well so it was again a great final with incredible rallies. I’m very happy that I could win by a narrow margin at the end.”
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Omar ASSAR did not see the reasons for his renewed defeat in the playing field: “I need to work more on my tactics so that I can be more flexible. Seven games are very long and my problem was that I played the same in all seven games. But Benne was also very strong today I congratulate him on his victory.”
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In the semi-final in the morning the hopes of Steffen MENGEL and Tobias HIPPLER for the first tournament victory were dashed. Like a week ago Mengel from Muelhausen lost the duel of friends with his long-time Bergneustadt club colleague Benedikt Duda.
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As with the ninth Masters edition it was a match at eye level with Duda finally winning 4-3 after trailing 2-3 in games and then admitting self-critically: “I played a bit unstable. In the fourth game with a 5-1 lead I missed a few good balls and a possible 3-1 lead. Instead Steffen then won two games in a row. But in the end I managed to play more aggressively and put him under pressure with balls taken early. But a bit of luck was also there today.”
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Spanish-Open semi-finalist Steffen Mengel analysed: “It was a relatively balanced game over seven games. In the end a few key situations tipped the scales and Benne used them well. That’s why he won.”
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In the second fight for a place in the final second division player Tobias HIPPLER was left behind against Egypt’s number one Omar ASSAR. The 21-year-old from Cologne found his way into the match in an exchange of shots with many worthwhile rallies after a 3-0 deficit secured the fourth game and fought his way back to game points in the fifth round.
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In the end however the experienced player prevailed as expected and was satisfied: “I think I had a good day today. It was a very good match today Tobias also played strongly”.
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Talent Tobias HIPPLER was satisfied with his performance but he also knows that there is still a lot of work ahead of him: “From a playing point of view I was in a good mood but I made a few tactical mistakes that you can’t afford to make against a player of his level. Omar is going quickly to the back and is very much there so you can’t afford the one or two slight mistakes per game that I made.โ
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At the big Masters final on Friday (21.8 from 5PM) and Sunday (23.8. from 11 AM) eight world class players will play for the overall victory. The field of participants is made up of the five best players on points from previous tournaments and three more aces who will receive a wild card.
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While the names of the three chosen players will not be announced until the beginning of the week five participants have already been determined based on the Masters overall standings. With Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (No. 11 in the world ranking list) Benedikt DUDA (WR 39) and Dang QIU (WR 52) three German stars as well as the Egyptian Omar ASSAR (WR 38) and the Swede Anton KALLBERG (WR 57) two international stars will be competing in the final.
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DUDA (180 points) won the points ranking of the Masters series with his second tournament victory in the final spurt ahead of qiu (170) OVTCHAROV (160) ASSAR (140) and KALLBERG (130). The nine men’s tournaments were won by Timo BOLL (Masters I) Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (Masters II Masters III and Masters IX) Bastian STEGER (Masters IV) Benedidkt DUDA (Masters VI and Masters X) Dang QIU (Masters VII) and as the only foreign winner so far the Swede Anton KALLBERG (Masters VIII). The women’s tournament was won by HAN Ying (Masters V).
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Duesseldorf Masters 10th tournament (August 14-16)
Final August 16
Benedikt Duda GER – Omar Assar EGY 4:3 (11 -11 -4 4 6 -6 8)
Semifinal August 16
Omar Assar EGY – Tobias Hippler GER 4:1 (6 6 6 -8 13)
Benedikt Duda GER – Steffen Mengel GER 4:3 (10 -9 7 -8 -4 7 5)
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