Dang QIU is the winner of the seventh Duesseldorf Masters. The man from Grünwettersbach continued the series of German successes with a 4-0 victory over Sweden’s world-class player Anton KALLBERG in the final and extended his lead in the overall standings. With Tobias HIPPLER (Cologne) and Geritt ENGEMANN (Hamm) two aces of the DTTB-U23 support squad also reached the semi-finals. The Masters series at the ARAG CenterCourt in Duesseldorf will be continued next week from Thursday to Saturday (23-25 July) with the eighth tournament.
The final became a very clear affair for Dang QIU who as before in the semi-final proved to be a thrifty Swabian and did not allow his opponent to win a game. The winner of the Portugal Open dominated Anton KALLBERG with 11:8 11:6 11:6 and 11:5 and did not really get into trouble at any stage of the match.
The 23-year-old penholder player was delighted to win the tournament in his third attempt having previously lost in two finals to his national team-mates Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and Bastian STEGER: “I am happy to have won my first title at the Masters. So I will definitely take a break next week. Anton didn’t play so well today so I deserved to win.”
KALLBERG who plays for Borusssia Duesseldorf acknowledged his opponent’s superiority after the final: “Unfortunately I didn’t stand a chance today. He played very safe and I made a lot of easy mistakes. He really deserved the victory and was just too good today.”
After six men’s events Dang QIU who has always reached at least the semi-finals so far leads the overall standings with 170 points ahead of Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (110) and the Egyptian Omar ASSAR (90). The Swabian’s success was the seventh success of a German national player at the seventh tournament. In the previous editions Timo BOLL (Masters I) Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (Masters II + III) Bastian STEGER (Masters IV) Benedikt DUDA (Masters VI) as well as HAN Ying who had won the women’s tournament.
QIU and KALLBERG No. 52 and 57 in the world rankings had previously ended the triumphal procession of two German U23 hopes in the semi-finals who had made it into the limelight with remarkable successes in yesterday’s quarter-finals. Dang QIU dominated the German duel with Gerrit ENGEMANN after a fierce first game and secured his third victory against the 20-year-old Westphalian within a few weeks without losing a game.
QIU commented: “Gerrit had a good start and played game points directly. But somehow I managed to bring home the first game and played better afterwards”.
Underdog ENGEMANN on the other hand mourned the chances he missed at the beginning of the match: “If the first game had ended differently the match could have taken a different course. But overall the victory is deserved because at this moment his level is simply still too high for me. But it’s exactly these kind of difficult matches that will definitely get me ahead.”
The importance of constant comparisons with world-class opponents was confirmed by the second-division player of TTC GW Bad Hamm yesterday in the quarter-finals. Without losing a game the 2019 U21 European Championship finalist defeated the Ecuadorian Alberto MINO number 77 in the ITTF ranking for the second time within a month.
In the second preliminary round match Anton KALLBERG kept Tobias HIPPLER at bay with 4:1. The Swede then praised the 21-year-old newcomer to 1 FC Cologne: “It was a tough match for me. Tobias played really well.”
HIPPLER however was less satisfied with his performance despite winning the second round: “I never really found a rhythm. But against Anton is also really hard for me. I have problems with his serves and therefore I quickly get into trouble.”
All the more reason for the former European Junior Champion in doubles to celebrate a spectacular victory yesterday. In the round of the best eight in six games the left-hander surprisingly finished the title hopes of the number 38 of the world ranking list Omar ASSAR (Egypt) who had already reached the Masters final twice before.
The eighth edition of the tournament series is scheduled from 23 to 25 July. The Duesseldorf Masters organized by Borussia Duesseldorf with the support of the German Table Tennis Federation will be held almost weekly until August at the ARAG CenterCourt in a knockout/ knockout system with up to 16 world-class players and is intended to shorten the break in competition caused by the Covid 19 pandemic. The series will conclude with a final tournament at the end of August with eight professionals for which five athletes will qualify on points. All events will be streamed live on Sportdeutschland.TV Borussia-TV und auf tischtennis.de.
Duesseldorf Masters 7th tournament (17-19 July)
Final July 19th
Dang Qiu GER – Anton Kaellberg SWE 4:0 (8 6 6 5)
Semifinal July 19
Tobias Hippler GER – Anton Kaellberg SWE 1:4 (-6.15 -5 -4 -8)
Dang Qiu GER – Gerrit Engemann GER 4:0 (12 5 2 7)
