On the opening day of the eighth Duesseldorf Masters U23 national player Cedric MEISSNER has caused a big upset and a favourite to fall. In the duel of the namesakes the player from 2nd Bundesleague ended the tournament premiere of the fourth seeded Belgian Cedric NUYTINCK in the round of sixteen. In the remaining five matches of the day however the wheat was separated from the chaff on the way to the quarter-finals without further surprises. World class table tennis can be seen on Friday at 10 am when the tournament favourites and four DTTB U23 aces will fight for the semi-finals. All matches will be broadcast live on Sportdeutschland.TV Borussia-TV and tischtennis.de.
MEISSNER who became 20 years old ten days ago only needed five games for his unexpected success over the world number 71. After winning the game with a margine of only two points MEISSNER still had to quit the fourth game against the Belgian but the rest remained a surprisingly clear matter for the Mainz player who was happy about his victory.
“We had a tough trainings camp this week. But it was still a good match from me even though I don’t usually like to play against left-handers. He certainly didn’t have his best day today but I felt good mentally and was often superior in the serve-return area.”
Belgium’s ace NUYTINCK had problems getting used to a completely new competitive situation for him: “It was very unusual. I couldn’t get used to having changed from training hall to competition. Everything felt strange today. That’s why I made a lot of easy mistakes that I don’t usually make. When you make so many easy mistakes your opponent doesn’t have to do much and it all happens very quickly.”
Due to MEISSNERS’ outsider victory in any case at least one player of the German U23 squad will reach the semi-finals. In the round of the top eight the left-hander will now face Tobias HIPPLER on Friday at 11.30 am who could reach the semi finals for the second time within seven days. The 21-year-old from Cologne had caused the biggest surprise at the seventh Masters a week ago with his quarter-final victory over multiple African champions Omar ASSAR.
The first and second seeded stars Omar ASSAR and Benedikt DUDA will also play their first matches on the second day of the tournament in the quarter-finals. The world number 38 ASSAR already twice represented in Masters finals will be challenged from 10.45 by the Dortmund talent Kirill FADEEV. Bergneustadt’s DUDA winner of the sixth Masters edition who is listed only one position behind the Egyptian in the ranking will end the second day of the tournament at 12.15 p.m. against the former European Youth Champion in doubles Nils HOHMEIER.
Already the first match of the day the only one without U23 participation promises World class table tennis when Anton KALLBERG and Steffen MENGEL from Muehlhausen duel in the ARAG CenterCourt at 10 am on Saturday. It will be the first encounter in the Masters series between the Spanish-Open semi-finalist Mengel and the Swedish who is listed 57th in the ITTF ranking and who lost last week in the final against Dang Qiu (Gruenwettersbach).
Duesseldorf Masters 8th tournament (23-25 July)
Round of 16 23 July
Omar Asssar EGY (seeding position 1) bye
Kirill Fadeev GER – André Bertelsmeier GER 4:1 (6 7 6 -7 4)
Steffen Mengel GER (6) – Tobias Slanina GER 4:1 (-6 5 1 4 3)
Anton Källberg SWE (3) – Felix Köhler GER 4:0 (10 3 7 4)
Cedric Nuytinck BEL (4) – Cedric Meissner GER 1:4 (-9 -6 -3 10 -6)
Tobias Hippler GER (7) – Tobias Sältzer GER 4:0 (5 7 5 9)
Nils Hohmeier GER (8) – Tayler Fox GER 4:0 (10 3 6 5)
Benedikt Duda GER (2) bye
Quarter-finals 24 July (in chronological order)
Steffen Mengel GER – Anton Källberg SWE 10 o’clock
Omar Assar EGY – Kirill Fadeev GER immediately following but not before 10.45
Tobias Hippler GER – Cedric Meissner GER 11.30
Benedikt Duda GER – Nils Hohmeier GER directly after but not before 12.15
Semifinals July 25
Winner 1st quarter final – Winner 2nd quarter final 10am
Winner 3rd quarter final – Winner 4th quarter final immediately following but not before 11 a.m.
Final July 25
1 p.m.
