At the ninth edition of the Düsseldorf Masters the DTTB stars Dimitrij OVTCHAROV Patrick FRANZISKA and Benedikt DUDA reached the semi-finals as expected. On Sunday FRANZISKA will fight against the Swede Anton KALLBERG (10 am) and afterwards OVTCHAROV against DUDA to reach the final (1 pm). All matches can be watched in live streaming on Sportdeutschland.TV Borussia-TV and on tischtennis.de.
Two contested matches and two clear victories for the favourites this is the balance of the quarter-final matches. As expected the world number 11 Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and the five places behind him ranked Patrick FRANZISKA did not have any real trouble with the outsiders Gerrit ENGEMANN (Hamm) and Kirill FADEEV (Dortmund). The German U23 hopes however were able to take one game each from the established stars.
Ex-World Cup winner Dimitrij OVTCHAROV said after his success against the former U21-EC-Runner-up ENGEMANN: “I am actually satisfied because I clearly won my four games. I moved well and played well. I thought that GERRIT also played well. In the fourth game I lost a bit of concentration after the lead but then I got back into my composure relatively quickly.”
FRANZISKA who made his debut at the Düsseldorf Masters today was satisfied with his first match against left-hander FADEEV: “The first match is always difficult as they say. The ball stops a bit more here at the CenterCourt than over there in the training hall. I had to get used to that a bit. But yes I had seen Kirill’s game yesterday against Tobias HIPPLER and knew that he plays very aggressively. He was also strong today and has improved really well. I think overall my performance was okay for my first competition since two months.”
A German duel on a high level was fought by the world rankings 39th Benedikt DUDA (Bergneustadt) and Steffen MENGEL from Muehlhausen. The Spanish-Open semi-finalist presented himself in good form but in the end his former club colleague was just ahead 4:2. DUDA who will now meet OVTCHAROV in the semi-final tomorrow at 10.45 admitted after the match: “I felt a bit uncomfortable in this match constellation because Steffen and I often train together. We’ve also played side by side in the club for several years and know each other inside and out. It was a difficult match and in some situations we had a bit of luck. I’m glad that I won in the end and now I’m in the semi-finals.”
Also worth seeing was the exchange of shots between the third seeded no. 27 in the World Kanak JHA (USA) and Anton KALLBERG. The Swede who had beaten DUDA in the final of the eighth edition of the Masters kept the American who is 30 places better in the ITTF ranking in check in six games and now challenges Patrick FRANZISKA from Saarbruecken in the fight for the entry into the final on Sunday at 10 am.
KALLBERG said after his victory: “I had lost to him twice before and won once but all matches were close just like today. It’s hard to play against him because he has good serves and brings back a lot of balls. I had a bit more luck today which made all the difference.”
Duesseldorf Masters 9th tournament (7-9 August)
Final August 9
1 p.m.
Semifinals August 9
Patrick Franziska GER – Anton Kaellberg SWE 10 o’clock
Dimitrij Ovtcharov GER – Benedikt Duda GER directly after but not before 10.45 a.m.
Quarterfinal August 8
Dimitrij Ovtcharov GER – Gerrit Engemann GER 4:1 (6 6 4 -10 6)
Benedikt Duda GER – Steffen Mengel GER 4:2 (6 -7 2 -7 8 9)
Kanak Jha USA – Anton Kaellberg SWE 2:4 (6 -10 -10 8 -9 -4)
Patrick Franziska GER – Kirill Fadeev GER 4:1 (-9 4 7 4 8)
