The second day of the fourth edition of the Duesseldorf Masters was all about the German stars. The experienced players Bastian STEGER and Steffen MENGEL made it to the all German semi-final. They succeeded against the top seeded aces Kanak JHA (USA) and Omar ASSAR (Egypt).
On Thursday (starting at 10am) Steger will play Benedikt DUDA and Mengel Dang QIU to qualify for the final (2pm). All three matches will be broadcast live on Sportdeutschland.TV Borussia-TV and on tischtennis.de.
Yesterday he had problems to find his rhythm at his first appearance after a long competition break today Bastian STEGER already caused a fall of the number 27 of the world ranking list Kanak JHA. The two-times European Championship bronze medalist STEGER had Ochsenhausen’s newcomer well under control:
“It was actually a bit surprising for me to win 4-1 especially in the high altitude. I had thought it would be a very close match because Kanak plays on a very high level. I am quite satisfied with my performance today.”
Next adversary of the World Rankings no. 125 from Bad Koenigshofen is his national team colleague Benedikt DUDA in the first semi-final (10 am) on Thursday. DUDA who is ranked number 39 in the world however had a hard and long fight against 21-year-old Tobias HIPPLER (Cologne) before he secured his victory. In the duel of the left-handers the man from Bergneustadt who had been 3-1 ahead in spite of two match points in game five only narrowly won 11-8 in the seventh and decisive game.
Duda was relieved about his victory in the final spurt: “Tobi played very well especially very aggressively. I was surprised. He hit many good balls. But I also gave myself a hard time when I missed two match points unnecessarily in the fifth game. Tobi then fought back well and from then on it was a close game. I’m glad that I won.”
Steffen MENGEL (Muehlhausen) who was defeated by Timo BOLL at the Masters premiere at the beginning of June only in the final presented himself in best shape with his 4:0 victory over last week’s finalist Omar ASSAR.
After his success over the World No. 38 Mengel who is currently ranked 140th was pleased with his good performance: “From the outside it looks a little bit clearer than it was in the match itself. Omar and I had never played against each other at an official tournament before; we only knew each other from training. I knew he was a player with a very high level of ball control and that I had to move well. I’m glad that I did well today.”
Dang QIU continued the series of his consistent performances at the Duesseldorf Masters. For the fourth time in a row the penholder player who is ranked 52nd in the ITTF ranking reached the semi-finals. The Swabian playing for Gruenwettersbach stopped the advance of the only 19-year-old Fanbo MENG (Fulda) who had reached the quarter-finals yesterday with a surprising victory over the world number 76th Mino with a safe 4-1 win.
Dang Qiu was satisfied: “This is now my fourth tournament. I have slowly found my rhythm and got used to the conditions. Fanbo and I already played against each other last week. We don’t have much to hide; we are in the same training group. I’m happy that I won the game.”
Duesseldorf Masters 4th tournament (22./23.6. and 25.6.)
The matches on Thursday
Semifinals June 25
Winner 1st quarter final – Winner 2nd quarter final 10am
Winner 3rd quarter final – Winner 4th quarter final immediately following but not before 11 a.m.
Final June 25
2 p.m.
Quarterfinals 23 June
Kanak Jha – Bastian Steger 1:4 (5 -5 -11 -8 -4)
Benedikt Duda – Tobias Hippler 4:3 (-4 9 9 -10 -8 8)
Dang Qiu – Fanbo Meng 4:1 (8 6 -7 8 9)
Omar Assar – Steffen Mengel 0:4 (-7 -6 -10 -9)
Last match Round of 16 June 23
Steffen Mengel – Kirill Fadeev 4:0 (8 10 9 9)
