Last week’s opening tournament with Anton KÄLLBERG (Sweden) and Omar ASSAR (Egypt) was already very prominent but the starting field at the second Düsseldorf Masters is filled even more with top names. The World number nine Dimitrij OVTCHAROV the Englishman Liam PITCHFORD ranked at the 15th position the Swede Kristian KARLSSON (29) and Benedikt DUDA (41) four absolute top stars will play for the title in the ARAG CenterCourt on Sunday from 10 a.m. The Düsseldorf Masters will be held on a total of seven Sundays in the ARAG CenterCourt until the end of May and streamed live on sportdeutschland.tv on Borussia TV and on tischtennis.de.
After the prelude a week ago mainly served to give DTTB talents their first match practice after a long pandemic break men’s national coach Jörg ROSSKOPF decided this time to give his stars Dimitrij OVTCHAROV and Benedikt DUDA important competition due to a lack of international alternatives.
“The most important thing for our entire training group is match practice. This applies to our talents as well as to the closest circle of the national team. That’s why we always decide from week to week who and how many will play “explained ROSSKOPF.
The Düsseldorf Masters a joint project by the host Borussia Düsseldorf and the German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) brings four world stars to the tables on the second Sunday who are challenged by a total of five young athletes from the DTTB sponsorship squad. The game is played in the knockout system from the start. The top seeded Dimitrij OVTCHAROV recently in great shape in Qatar and winner of the WTT Contender premiere will meet left-hander Tobias HIPPLER (Cologne) in the quarter-finals at 11 a.m.: “I’m looking forward to being at the Masters on Sunday and winning again. “
The four top seed
1 Dimitrij OVTCHAROV GER (Fakel Gazprom Orenburg RUS)
2 Liam PITCHFORD ENG (UMMC Ekaterinburg RUS)
3 Kristian KARLSSON SWE (Borussia Düsseldorf)
4 Benedikt DUDA GER (TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt)
The other participants
Tobias HIPPLER (1. FC Cologne)
Nils HOHMEIER (TTC OE Bad Homburg)
Benno OEHME (TTC RöhnSprudel Fulda-Maberzell)
Cedric MEISSNER (FSV Mainz 05)
Kay STUMPER (TTC Neu-Ulm)
Round of 16
10.00 a.m: Benno Oehme – Kay Stumper
Quarter finals
10.30 a.m: Benedikt Duda – Nils Hohmeier
11.00 a.m: Dimitrij Ovtcharov – Tobias Hippler
11.30 a.m: Kristian Karlsson – Benno Oehme or Kay Stumper
12: Liam Pitchford – Cedric Meissner
Semifinals
12.30 p.m.: Winner Duda / Hohmeier – Winner Karlsson / Winner Oehme vs Stumper
1 p.m: Winner Ovtcharov / Hippler – Winner Pitchford / Meissner
– 60 minutes break –
Final
