The first day of the fourth tournament ended with the stumbling of a seeded player at the Duesseldorf Masters in the ARAG CenterCourt. The 19-year-old Fanbo MENG beat Alberto MINO (Ecuador) who is ranked 76th in the world and qualified for the quarter-finals. On Tuesday the the Masters starts at 9.30 am on the final Thursday half an hour later at 10 am. All matches will be streamed live on Sportdeutschland.TV Borussia-TV and on tischtennis.de
Fanbo MENG 19 years old from Fulda created the upset of the day. The former European Youth Team Champion who has been able to work his way up to position 241 in the world rankings so far defeated seeded no. five Alberto MINO from Ecuador in five contested games in the round of best sixteen. The left-hander was pleased with his performance:
“Alberto Mino is a top 100 player. It is always very nice to win against such a good player. He plays very unpleasantly but I’ve adjusted well to that.”
After his success over number 76 Meng will meet Germany’s world number 52 in the round of the best eight on Tuesday Dang QIU (Grünwettersbach) who overcame Gerrit ENGEMANN (Hamm) without losing a game.
Qiu was surprised: “It was a bit easier than I thought. Gerrit was not in such a good mood today. I think he can play much better.”
As expected the two top seeded players the American Kanak JHA and the Egyptian Omar ASSAR also qualified for the quarter-finals as did Germany’s veteran Bastian STEGER (Bad Königshofen) who alongside MENG is a second player in the German U23 support squad Tobias HIPPLER.
After his 4-2 victory over his Mainz-based national team colleague Cedric MEISSNER the new addition to the 1 FC Cologne squad said: “I got in super at the beginning. Then I had a false start in the third game and got a little nervous. We know each other very well and therefore a lot happens in our heads.”
After his victory over Cedric MEISSNER from Mainz Hippler will challenge number three on the seedings list tomorrow Benedikt DUDA. The man from Bergneustadt who is listed on 39 in the ITTF ranking had a walk-through in the round of sixteen.
On Tuesday all four duels for a place in the semi-finals are on the daily schedule including the interesting clash between the number 27 in the world ranking list Kanak JHA and the two-time European Championship bronze medallist Bastian STEGER who was satisfied with his first appearance on Monday: “It is very unusual to have a match for the first time after such a long break in competition. Then there is tension again and that feels good. I’m going into the tournament without too much pressure and I’m looking forward to every game I can play.”
Probably the quarter finals will also see some topspin duels between Steffen MENGEL and last week’s finalist Omar ASSAR which are well worth seeing. Precondition: MENGEL wins the last round of the last sixteen against Talent Kirill FADEEV at the start of the day.
ASSAR defeated the former European Youth Champion in doubles Nils HOHMEIER in five games today: “Nils played very well especially his serves were very unpleasant. So I am very happy to have won anyway. For the tournament I think from game to game.”
Duesseldorf Masters 4th tournament (June 22nd/23rd and June 25th)
Round of sixteen June 22
Kanak Jha USA (game position 1) – Felix Köhler 4:0 (8 7 6 6)
Bastian Steger (6) – Tobias Slanina 4:0 (6 4 4 8)
Tobias Hippler (8) – Cedric Meissner 4:2 (5.8 -10.6 -9.9)
No Match: Benedikt Duda (3)
Dang Qiu (4) – Gerrit Engemann 4:0 (9 4 7 5)
Alberto Mino ECU (5) – Fanbo Meng 1:4 (-8 -9 8 -10 -9)
Steffen Mengel – Kirill Fadeev (Tuesday 9:30 am)
Omar Assar EGY (2) – Nils Hohmeier 4:1 (7 -9 5 7 7)
