Duesseldorf Masters Part 2 (June 8 and 9)
One week after the successful premiere of the new tournament series “Duesseldorf Masters” the start of the second tournament was on the agenda today. Gerrit ENGEMANN provided the only surprise of the day. The 2019 European Junior Championship finalist reached the round of the best eight players with a 3:1 victory over world number 76 Alberto MINO (Ecuador).
Tomorrow on June 9th the quarter- and semi-final matches as well as the final will be streamed live from the Arag CentreCourt on Sportdeutschland.TV Borussia-TV and on tischtennis.de
Engemann defeats the number 76 in the World and the remaining seven favourites had no difficulties with their challengers and confidently reached the quarter finals. The aces Dimitrij OVTCHAROV Kanak JHA and Qiu DANG seeded from one to three beat the DTTB-youngsters Nils HOHMEIER Tayler FOX and Kirill FADEEV without losing a set. Premiere finalist Steffen MENGEL won against Kay STUMPER Tobias HIPPLER against Felix KÖHLER Fanbo MENG against Tobias SÄLTZER and Cedric MEISSNER beat former German national team player Thomas KEINATH in duel of Generations.
Compared to the first tournament won by Timo BOLL there are some new players in the tournament due to the TTBL play-offs in the same week and smaller breaks for other players in week two among them the US shooting star Kanak JHA as well as several youth national players. The future TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen player JHA is placed no.2 on the seeding list behind former World Cup winner Dimitrij OVTCHAROV who leads the field and ahead of Dang QIU.
The Ecuadorian Alberto MINO surprisingly lost today as number four of the seedings against Hamms second league player Gerrit ENGEMANN. With Kay STUMPER Felix KÖHLER Tayler FOX and Tobias SÄLTZER four DTTB youth national team players also took part this time but paid their dues in the round of sixteen.
“It’s an important experience to compete under these conditions. The current new normality is still very unusual – without spectators without noise. For the top players it is good competition training and for the youngsters it is important to gain experience. Both together make the Duesseldorf Masters so valuable” commented DTTB Sports Director Richard PRAUSE.
The format which will be held almost weekly at the ARAG CenterCourt from June to August is intended to give the German national players the players of Borussia Duesseldorf and the players of the training group at the German Table Tennis Centre in the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia practical experience. Timo BOLL Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and Patrick FRANZISKA three of the world’s top players are among the general group of participants. Four cracks from the world’s top 50 as well as four more athletes from the top 100 make the Duesseldorf Masters the only tournament series of its kind in the world at this level.
The tournament which is organized by Borussia Duesseldorf with the support of the DTTB will be held over two days in the first two weeks. From the third week of the tournament on the tournament will be played on three days. The Duesseldorf Masters will be played in a knock-out system with up to 16 participants. The series ends with a final tournament with eight professionals for which the athletes have to qualify or are admitted via a wildcard.
All games of the Duesseldorf Masters will be broadcast live with several cameras on sportdeutschland.tv Borussia TV and tischtennis.de. Spectators on site are not allowed to watch the games in order to contain the corona pandemic.
Duesseldorf Masters 2. Tournament
Monday 8. June 2020
Best 16
Tobias Hippler (6) – Felix Köhler 3:0 (5 7 4)
Dang Qiu (3) – Kirill Fadeev 3:0 (3 6 3)
Alberto Mino (4) – Gerrit Engemann 1:3 (13 -9 -6 -14)
Fanbo Meng (7) – Tobias Sältzer 3:0 (2 5 7)
Dimitrij Ovtcharov (1) – Nils Hohmeier 3:0 (8 2 9)
Steffen Mengel (5) – Kay Stumper 3:0 (8 12 6)
Kanak Jha (2) – Tayler Fox 3:0 (5 7 2)
Cedric Meissner (8) – Thomas Keinath 3:1 (10 -9 8 5)
Tuesday 9. June 2020
Quarter Finals
Fanbo Meng (7) – Gerrit Engemann 9.30
Dang Qiu (3) – Cedric Meissner (8) not before 10.05
Dimitrij Ovtcharov (1) – Tobias Hippler (6) not before 10.40
Kanak Jha (2) – Steffen Mengel (5) not before 11.15
Semi Finals
Fanbo Meng (7) or Gerrit Engemann – Dang Qiu (3) or Cedric Meissner (8) not before 11.50
Dimitrij Ovtcharov (1) or Tobias Hippler (6) – Kanak Jha (2) or Steffen Mengel (5) not before 12.25
Final
- 45-60 Minutes after 2nd Semi Final but not before 13.45
Dimitri Ovtcharov
“I trained a lot last week and I hope to improve this week. I played a solid first match even if my performance is certainly still capable of improvement”.
Kanak Jha
“I’m happy to have won my first match. It’s been a long time since I played a match so it was important to be in good mental shape. I won and I hope I can do that again tomorrow.”
Dang Qiu
“I think we’re a little bit prepared for the tournament and the game-like competition now in the second week. It is a good thing for us. Anyway it feels better now than last week and we’ll see what the week holds.”
Steffen Mengel
“I came in a little heavy like last week. But at the last tournament I was able to improve a lot on day two and I hope that it will be the same this time.”
Tobias Hippler
“The situation is of course a bit different without spectators than when you play in the second league or on the Pro Tour when the hall is full. Nevertheless it’s good to have competitions again and when the season starts again you’re already used to it. Maybe it was a little easier for me this week because when I play well against Felix I usually win the game and then I know I can get into my rhythm well.
Gerrit Engemann
“Last week of course everything was a little unusual to be playing again after such a long break. Today I was maybe a bit less nervous at the beginning but unfortunately I couldn’t bring my performance which I had brought in the last days in training into the game. Nevertheless I am of course satisfied that I won even if I still have to work on some things”.
Fanbo Meng
“I was the favourite against Tobias he is a young player and just 15 I still know him from boarding school and I know what it is like to play against older players it is always very difficult. Nevertheless you have to win against such players first. I have mastered this with confidence and I am very happy with it.
Cedric Meissner
“I was very good today in the serve-return area. Even though I made a lot of easy mistakes I’m still satisfied that I won.”
