Other Events | 23 Oct 2014

Biggest stars to shine in Düsseldorf

LIEBHERR 2014 ITTF Men’s World Cup starts tomorrow in Düsseldorf. It is the second time the event has been held in the country. The previous occasion was in Magdeburg. In the ISS Dome from Friday at the LIEBHERR Men’s World Cup will play World Champion ZH

LIEBHERR 2014 ITTF Men’s World Cup starts tomorrow in Düsseldorf. It is the second time the event has been held in the country. The previous occasion was in Magdeburg.
In the ISS Dome from Friday at the LIEBHERR Men’s World Cup will play World Champion ZHANG Jike of China, African Cup Winner Quadri ARUNA of Nigeria, Asian Cup Winner MA Long of China, Latin American Cup Winner Cazuo MATSUMOTO of Brazil, North American Cup Winner JHA Kanak of USA, Oceania Cup Winner William HENZELL of Australia, Europe Cup Winner Marcos FREITAS of Portugal, Jun MIZUTANI of Japan (Asian Cup 3rd place), Adrian CRISAN of Romania (substitution), Dimitrij OVTCHAROV of Germany (Europe Cup 3rd place), CHEN Chien- An Taipei (Asian Cup 4th place), Tiago APOLONIA of Portugal (substitute), Sharath Kamal ACHANTA of India (Asian Cup 6th place), CHUANG Chih-Yuan of Taipei (Asian Cup 7th place), Kenta MATSUDAIRA of Japan (Asian Cup 8th place), TANG Peng of Hong Kong (Asian Cup 9-10th place), Adrien MATTENET of France (Europe Cup 4th place), Alexander SHIBAEV of Russia (Europe Cup 5th place), Timo BOLL (Europe Cup 6th place), Panagiotis GIONIS of Greece (Wild card).

Already, organizer has sold 6.500 tickets for all 3 days of the tournament. “Our target is to sell about 10.000 altogether and we are quite optimistic that we’ll make that,” says Mr. Martin AMMERMANN, CEO of Düsseldorf Congress Sport & Event, who joined Dimitrij OVTCHAROV at the press talk on Tuesday at a Chinese restaurant in the “City of Sports” as Düsseldorf calls itself.

Under main spotlight will be the best ranked European player OVTCHAROV. “That the World Cup takes place in Düsseldorf is something very special for me. This is the city where I live and practice. My place is only 10 to 12 minutes away from ISS DOME by car. I will sleep at home but still have a room in the player’s hotel where I can rest between the matches. The hotel is even closer to the venue than my home. During the event I should lose as little time as possible to prepare well”.

Dimitrij had rough time during the European Championships in Lisbon, held last month. He had all 4 wisdom teeth removed the week before the European Championships in September “I’m alive and kicking again after my teeth surgery. I’ve given full speed ahead in practice now for about 2 weeks. Anyway I’ll play the World Cup without too much pressure. After my little aches and pains in the past weeks you cannot expect that I’ll go straight to the top. If I won the bronze medal once again like last year I would be satisfied. Even though my device is usually that I intend to precede first round further compared to last time. MA Long and ZHANG Jike had a long preparation for the Asian Games. Maybe they feel a little tired now. This is usually how I feel after a big, big tournament. To beat the Chinese is really difficult: They are either extremely strong or almighty. I hope that in Düsseldorf they’ll be only in rather good shape”.