LIEBHERR World Championships
In front of full packed Messe Arena in Dusseldorf in front of 7.000 enthusiastic spectators and in fabulous atmosphere Germany’s Timo BOLL was close to reach the semi final of the Men’s Singles event at the LEBHERR World Championships 2017. On the other side of the net it was his doubles partner World’s no. one and defending champion MA Long of China; MA was the man who denied Timo of reaching the semi final (5-11 11-8 4-11 11-5 4-11 9-11). Last time he played in the penultimate stage was in 2011.
“I am very disappointment ” said Timo BOLL. “I am very satisfied with my performance but not with the result.”
He had a chance in the sixth game at 8:4 but could not seized the opportunity to level to 3:3.
“Few little things decided the match at the end.”
After seven grueling games the Round of 16 was completed with the triumph of Japan’s Koki NIWA who also inflicted the pain in the harts of the home supporters. Koki seeded at the position no 10 beat no. 5 seed Dimitrij OVTCHAROV of Germany (11-13 13-11 7-11 3-11 11-9 3-11).
“It was very tough I barely can remember when I played against an opponent who take all the risk and basically never misses. It was very tough to play and to find a tactic against him. Nevertheless I tried to play my game and most of the time it worked well. I had a big chance in the second set where I was leading 6-2 especially in the fourth game at 10-8 and at 8-6 I had a good ball; these were my chances ” Dimitrij OVTCHAROV. “The fans gave me strength and confidence and I’m so very glad they came out to see me play.”
National coach Jorg ROSSKOPF commented the game.
‘It was incredibly fast and game with long rallies. Both players played very vise but at this point NIWA had 1percent more power and Dimitrij was under great pressure playing in Dusseldorf. He want so much to be here tonight and play the quarter final against FAN Zhendong.”
In five previous occasions OVTCHAROV succeeded but this time NIWA was better.
The winner of the match between FAN Zhendong and NIWA will meet LEE Sangsu of Korea who beat WONG Chun Ting in the quarters (11-7 10-12 11-8 11-7 11-5).
