Duesseldorf Masters VII: Favourites wins on the first day

July 18, 2020
10:51 am
Other Events

Injuries have led to a new draw at the seventh Düsseldorf Masters. After the short-term cancellation of Benedikt DUDA (sprain) who was originally placed second and the draw for Fanbo MENG due to a torn muscle fibre a new draw took place on Friday morning.

In the morning last week’s winner Benedikt DUDA (Bergneustadt) had to cancel his start. Yesterday evening the world’s number 39 had twisted his right foot during the final jump training. Although the swelling went down a bit overnight but after a test at the table on Friday Duda decided to give it up as a precaution: “It’s only sprained but nothing torn. It won’t be a long drawn-out affair but I felt it stronger during the morning training. I’d have liked to play but a few days off would be healthier.”

Omar ASSAR (Egypt) and Dang QIU (Grünwettersbach) now top seeded ahead of Anton KÄLLBERG (Sweden) and Alberto MINO (Ecuador) were given a walk-through for day one after the new draw due to two missing players. In the remaining six round of sixteen matches between the seeded players and DTTB junior players the favourites kept the upper hand as expected.

In the quarterfinals at 11.30 am Gerrit Engemann (TTC GW Bad Hamm) and the Ecuadorian Alberto Mino will fight an interesting duel. At the second Masters in June the 2019 U21 European Championship finalist Engemann surprisingly defeated the world number 77. Engemann is eagerly awaiting another duel with Mino: “At the beginning I had some problems today but then I played better. I’m looking forward to the game against Alberto. We’ll see how it goes this time.” The winner of the match is expected to face the world number 52nd Dang Qiu in the semi-final on Sunday at 10am.

In the round of the best eight Kilian ORT plays the number 67 of the ITTF ranking Sweden’s Anton KÄLLBERG. Yesterday the Bad Köngshofener played his first match in four and a half months against youngster Kirill FADEEV in the round of sixteen. Accordingly the Franconian needed some time to find his way into the game: “I haven’t had a match since the German Championships. At the beginning it took a lot of getting used to. But Kirill also played quite well. I hope I can win against Anton tomorrow.”

However the second day of the tournament started at ten o’clock at first with the match between Portugal Open winner DANG Qiu (Grünwettersbach) and former German Youth Champion Cedric MEISSNER (Mainz). From 12.15 p.m. the two-time Masters finalist the world number 38 Omar Assar will compete against left-hander Tobias Hippler (Cologne).

In any case a new name will be added to the list of winners of the men’s events at the seventh Masters because this time the previous winners Timo BOLL (Masters I) Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (Masters II and III) Bastian STEGER (Masters IV) and Benedikt DUDA (Masters VI) are missing.

The Duesseldorf Masters is held almost weekly until the end of August at the ARAG CenterCourt and is intended to give the German national players the opportunity to compete at top-class level during the Corona pandemic. There are currently no international tournaments. All matches of the Duesseldorf Masters will be broadcast live on Sportdeutschland.TV Borussia-TV and tischtennis.de.

Duesseldorf Masters 7th tournament (17-19 July)

Round of 16 17 July (6 games)

Omar Assar EGY (seeding position 1) bye

Tobias Hippler GER (6) – Dennis Klein GER 4:1 (-7 6 8 6 8)

Kilian Ort GER (5) – Kirill Fadeev GER 4:2 (-7 5 -6 9 5 9)

Anton Källberg SWE (3) – Felix Köhler GER 4:0 (5 7 8 5)

Alberto Mino ECU (4) – André Bertelsmeier GER 4:1 (-4 3 3 5 10)

Gerrit Engemann GER (8) – An Duy Dang GER 4:0 (5 6 7 6)

Cedric Meisser GER (7) – Tobias Sältzer GER 4:0 (2 7 6 6)

Dang Qiu GER (2) bye

Quarter-finals 18 July (in chronological order)

Dang Qiu GER – Cedric Meisser GER 10 o’clock