Day one of the third Duesseldorf Masters is finished. The quarterfinalists are determined after six matches of the best eight. Tomorow for the first time this week the top seeded Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and Kanak JHA will also enter the tournament. The event will be broadcast live on the ARAG CentreCourt on Tuesday from 9.30 a.m. on Sportdeutschland.TV Borussia-TV and tischtennis.de. The final day on Wednesday with semi-final matches and the final will start at 10 am.
Today there were plenty of high class rallies but exciting decisions remained scarce on the first day of the third tournament. Even the duel between Gerrit ENGEMANN and the eighth seeded Nils HOHMEIER which was previously considered to be equal ended 4-0 and it is surprising at least in terms of its level.
ENGEMANN said after the match: “It has never been so clear against Nils. I have always had close matches against him. I think it was the tactics I also tried a little bit in training how to get into the game better with my serve and that worked well against him”.
The other five winners of the first of three tournament days were the expected names in any case. Felix KOEHLER An Duy Dang Tobias SLANINA André BERTELSMEIER and Kirill FADEEV five talents of the German Table Tennis Boarding School (DTTI) were at the table. As expected the quintet paid their dues against the favoured competitors. But at least KÖHLER and FADEEV managed to win sets against the U23 national players Cedric MEISSNER and Tobias HIPPLER.
Interesting matches are expected in the quarter finals. The day starts at 9.30 am with the encounter between the previous week’s finalist DANG Qiu (Gruenwettersbach) and the former German youth champion Cedric MEISSNER (Mainz) followed by USA star Kanak JHA with Gerrit ENGEMANN (TTC GW Bad Hamm) who surprised with a victory over the world number 76 Alberto MINO (Ecuador) a week ago. Dimitrij OVTCHAROV 2017 World Cup winner and winner of the second Masters is clearly favoured against Tobias HIPPLER in the third singles match before Egyptian Omar ASSAR is challenged by Fulda’s left-hander Fanbo MENG in the final duel of the day.
The Duesseldorf Masters organized by Borussia Duesseldorf with the support of the German Table Tennis Federation is held almost weekly from June to August at the ARAG CenterCourt in a knockout system with up to 16 participants. The series concludes with a final tournament with eight professionals for which five athletes qualify by scoring points and three receive a wildcard. All matches will be broadcast live with several cameras on Sportdeutschland.TV Borussia-TV and tischtennis.de. Spectators on site are not allowed due to the Corona pandemic.
QUOTES OF THE DAY
Dang Qiu: “In any case it was interesting to see on which level the boys from the German Table Tennis Boarding School are plying how efficient or how good they have become. The balls come a bit differently you have to adapt. In the end he played quite well and I also improved and therefore I think I won relatively sovereign 4:0”.
Omar Assar: “The Düsseldorf Masters are a very good idea of Borussia Düsseldorf and the DTTB. Because of the missing tournaments of the ITTF it is very difficult for a player. I am very happy that I can play again. Winning or losing is not important right now. I am just happy that I can play. Thanks to Borussia Düsseldorf for the organization.”
Cedric Meissner: “The last time I played Felix was two years ago. Since then he has definitely developed very well. I myself played very badly today it was my worst tournament match here so far. At the beginning I really only served and then didn’t play any more. In the middle of the second set I finally started to play with a bit more quality.
Fanbo Meng: “I found it hard to keep my focus that long. It’s been a very long time since I played four winning sets. So it’s a good preparation for the time when it’s time to go international again. Nevertheless I am happy that I won. It was not an easy game. He plays very unorthodox and is kind of hard to read.”
Tobias Hippler: “I prefer to play a total of four winning sets simply because you have a bit more time to get into the game even though I had a pretty good start today. I like playing Kirill because I know where the balls go and that helps me to move more. That’s why I’m actually always quite happy when I can play him.”
Gerrit Engemann: “It has never been so clear against Nils. I have always had close matches against him. I think it was the tactics I also tried a little bit in training how to get into the game better with my serve and that worked well against him”.
Duesseldorf Masters 3. tournament (15.-17. Juni)
Best 16 15. Juni (in chronological order)
Cedric Meissner (Seed 7) – Felix Koehler 4:1 (-7 10 6 9 7)
Omar Assar (3) – An Duy Dang 4:0 (3 5 6 3)
Fanbo Meng (6) – Tobias Slanina 4:0 (6 3 7 10)
Tobias Hippler (5) – Kirill Fadeev 4:1 (7 5 8 -6 8)
Dang Qiu (4) – André Bertelsmeier 4:0 (8 5 7 8)
Nils Hohmeier (8) – Gerrit Engemann 0:4 (-4 -5 -8 -5)
Quarter Finals 16. Juni (in chronological order)
Dang Qiu – Cedric Meissner 9:30am
Kanak Jha – Gerrit Engemann directly after but not before 10:15 am
Dimitrij Ovtcharov – Tobias Hippler directly after but not before 11 am
Omar Assar – Fanbo Meng directly after but not before 11:45
Semi Finals 17. Juni (in chronological order)
Winner 2nd quarter final – Winner 4th quarter final 10am
Winner 1st quarter final – Winner 3rd quarter final immediately afterwards but not before 11 a.m.
Finale 17. Juni
2 am
