Dang Qiu cannot repeat his success of the previous week against Ovtcharov
The winners couldn’t be more prominent. One week after the premiere success of Timo BOLL with Dimitrij OVTCHAROV another former world number one won the second tournament of the Duesseldorf Masters today. Next week the third part of the tournament series which is organized by Borussia Duesseldorf with the support of the German Table Tennis Federation (DTTB) will take place on three days and will be streamed live on Sportdeutschland.TV Borussia-TV and tischtennis.de.
At the second tournament the 2017 World Cup winner took revenge in the final with a clear 3-1 win over Dang QIU for the defeat he suffered against the man from Gruenwettersbach in the quarter-finals a week ago. In the preliminary round matches tournament favourites OVTCHAROV beat Fulda’s up-coming youngster Fanbo MENG and QIU against second seed Kanak JHA (USA). The American shooting star who will wear the TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen jersey next season had previously put an end to Steffen MENGEL’S hopes of reaching the final again. With OVTCHAROV JHA and QIU the three top seeded players reached the semi-finals as expected. At the second tournament of the Duesseldorf Masters yesterday Gerrit ENGEMANN was the only one who brought up a surprise in the round of best sixteen. The runner-up of the European U21 Championship 2019 who starts for TTC GW Bad Hamm defeated the world number 76 Alberto MINO from Ecuador the number four seeded player. In the fight for a place in the semi-finals however Engemann was today unable to save a 2-0 lead over Meng today.
In comparison to the premiere tournament a different field of participants started yesterday and today due to the TTBL play-offs also taking place this week included JHA and several youth national team players. Joerg ROSSKOPF head of Germany national men’s team was satisfied with the second master tournament:
“Dima was hot to win the tournament. Against DANG who previously had a tough match against JHA he played very focused and powerful in the final. You can see from all the players that the tournament is very well received. Training and competition can be perfectly combined in this format. The games are taken very seriously and as a coach you see a lot of things here that we can take over to the neighbouring training hall and incorporate into the training. That’s the way it has to be.”
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 organized by Borussia Duesseldorf with the support of the DTTB will be played on three days from the third week of the tournament after two two two-day opening events. The Duesseldorf Masters are held in a knockout 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.
Quotes
Dimitrij Ovtcharov (after winning the tournament)
“I think I’ve had a better rhythm this week than the last one. The whole match feeling has developed and that was a class better. Of course there has to be more in the future but I’m really happy with the way I played today. Especially last week I always played against Dang out of the setback today the match was more dominant from the beginning. Dang has developed quite strongly just like Bene Duda and that’s why it was a decent win and I’m looking forward to the other tournaments.”
Dang Qiu (After his final defeat)
“In the end second place is first loser. Dima played better today was better prepared and I myself wasn’t as good and lively as last time. I lost without a chance in the first two sets. In the last one it was still relatively tight but then I took it into my own hands with a few easy mistakes. At this level that is punished directly. A summary of the whole tournament: I am very satisfied to have reached the final.”
Kanak Jha (after his victory in the quarter finals)
“It was a really tough match. The last time I played Steffen Mengel it ended 3-2 like today. I knew that it would be a close match and I am really happy that I won and reached the semi-finals.”
Fanbo Meng (after his victory in the quarter finals)
“I was 0-2 down and then I fought my way into the game. Generally I like to play against Gerrit. I have never officially won against him if I am honest. I am very happy that I won against Gerrit. He also played well especially at the beginning but at the end he got more nervous I noticed that and built up more pressure. So I could still turn the game around.”
Duesseldorf Masters 2nd tournament
FINAL
Dimitrij Ovtcharov – Dang Qiu 3:1 (7 2 -7 6)
SEMIFINALS
Dimitrij Ovtcharov – Fanbo Meng 3:0 (7 9 6)
Dang Qiu – Kanak Jha 3:2 (-7 3 5 -5 9)
QUARTER FINALS
Dimitrij Ovtcharov – Tobias Hippler 3:0 (8 2 10)
Fanbo Meng – Gerrit Engemann 3:2 (-7 -9 10 6 9)
Dang Qiu – Cedric Meissner 3:0 (7 7 4)
Kanak Jha – Steffen Mengel 3:2 (3 -7 11 -3 9)
ROUND OF 16
Dimitrij Ovtcharov – Nils Hohmeier 3:0 (8 2 9)
Tobias Hippler – Felix Koehler 3:0 (5 7 4)
Alberto Mino – Gerrit Engemann 1:3 (13 -9 -6 -14)
Fanbo Meng – Tobias Saeltzer 3:0 (2 5 7)
Cedric Meissner – Thomas Keinath 3:1 (10 -9 8 5)
Dang Qiu – Kirill Fadeev 3:0 (3 6 3)
Steffen Mengel – Kay Stumper 3:0 (8 12 6)
Kanak Jha – Tayler Fox 3:0 (5 7 2)
