ARAG CenterCourt is the venue for the Düsseldorf Masters which started today. On the opening day of the first of series of tournaments the first quarterfinal is concluded. Timo BOLL reached the penultimate stage after his victory over Anton KÄLLBERG 3:1.
In other quarterfinal tomorrow Omar ASSAR will play against Kristian KARLSSON Steffen MENGEL will meet Benedikt DUDA and Dimitrij OVTCHAROV will play against Dang QIU. BOLL will face Omar ASSAR or Kristian KARLSSON in the semi final.
“For the players it is of course not so easy to play completely without spectators but they have to get used to it for this tournament. The matches were good. The players were pretty hot. I’m satisfied with day one and I think the players are satisfied too“ Germany’s men’s head coach Jörg Roßkopf said.
From June to August the home of Germany’s top club Borussia Düsseldorf will host the German national team players the players of Borussia Düsseldorf and the players of the training group at the German Table Tennis Centre in Düsseldorf.
Both days of the opening tournament and all other Düsseldorf Masters events will be broadcasted live on sportdeutschland.tv www.tischtennis.de and on Borussia TV in full and with three cameras.
Timo BOLL after the round of 16:
“It was a strange feeling to play a competition like that without spectators without atmosphere. But I am glad that Borussia and the DTTB created the chance to get real match practice again. I am satisfied with my performance.”
After the quarter finals:
“My last match I played on my birthday in a league match against Ochsenhausen. So it’s quite different whether you play a training match or the tournament now which puts you under stress in a completely different way. Therefore we are all very happy that we can finally play a match again. I’m in the semi-finals after a good duel with Anton but I also saw what I still have to work on.
Kristian KARLSSON:
“It was a really nice game against Cedric. He was hot and wanted to win so I had to step on the gas and so a great fight developed right in the first match. I’m very pleased with my opening.”
Dimitrij OVTCHAROV:
“I didn’t get the flow today that I was after like in training. Fanbo held against it very well and made it difficult to get into my rhythm. Anyway it was a solid start. I won and that makes me satisfied.”
Results Düsseldorf Masters Round of 16
Benedikt DUDA – Gerrit ENGEMANN 3:0 (4 7 10)
Dennis KLEIN – Steffen MENGEL 1:3 (-5 5 -3 -7)
Anton KÄLLBERG – Nils HOHMEIER 3:0 (8 4 4)
Omar ASSAR – Alberto MIÑO* 3:0 (8 6 6)
Dimitrij OVTCHAROV – Fanbo MENG 3:1 (10 -7 9 10)
Timo BOLL – Kirill FADEEV 3:0 (4 5 7)
Kristian KARLSSON – Cedric MEISSNER 3:1 (-9 8 5 6)
Dang QIU – Tobias HIPPLER 3:0 (5 8 9)
QUARTERFINAL
BOLL – KÄLLBERG 3:1 (5 -7 5 9)
ASSAR- KARLSSON 2 June 9.30 AM
DUDA – MENGEL
QIU – OVTCHAROV
