Other Events | 13 Nov 2017
OVTCHAROV getting close to achieve his goal - to become No. one
Photo: ITTF
Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Platinum German Open
Newly crowned Men's World Cup Champion Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) has won his fourth ITTF World Tour title of the year in dramatic fashion at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Platinum German Open.
The second seeded OVTCHAROV had made his way to the final after sensationally defeating world number two FAN Zhendong in front of the 4,700 sold-out crowd in the semifinals, to set up an all-German final with Timo BOLL (GER) who had a 4-0 win over Korea Republic's LEE Sangsu.
In the rematch of their epic encounters at the 2017 China Open and the Liebherr 2017 ITTF Men's World Cup Finals, the two German heroes faced each other in an enthralling seven-game clash.
The match saw a tight chase between both players and it was eventually OVTCHAROV who repeated his success against BOLL 4-3 (9-11, 11-5, 11-9, 6-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-6) to claim his career third German Open (2012, 2014 & 2017), and fourth World Tour title of the year (Indian Open, China Open, Bulgaria Open & German Open).
"Every time against Timo it gets tougher and tougher, I feel every match is basically on the knife's edge in the last game. I'm aiming to become world number one in the ranking, so I have a strong will to win the tournament," shared the 28-year-old after his victory. "Timo is my good friend, my idol, I practiced with him so much in my whole career, I think without him I wouldn't have come so far as I'm here and I'm grateful for that."
OVTCHAROV added:
“I’m exhausted, really tired, two matches of that level in one day is very hard for us. But I gave all I’ve got and it was a very tough final against Timo as usual and I think it’s mostly the mental part giving me confidence winning so many close matches against him, that’s maybe what made the difference in the end. In the last game, I had a little anger. I had a good opportunity in the fourth and the sixth game, but Timo played so clever, changed the rhythm, changed the service, bring me out of my rhythm and made the game very tough for me. I went into the rallies risking many things and I had an amazing start and I’m glad I could bring it into the end.”
