(by Steve Hopkins)

Competitive table tennis is back in Germany in full force.  The Budesliga Championships was held over the weekend and the previous two weeks had warm-up tournaments labeled as the Dusseldorf Masters Series.

The third and final installment of the Dusseldorf Masters concluded on the 17th.  The top two seeds were Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Kanak Jha.  In the Quarterfinals, Jha overcame Gerrit Engerman 4-2, Egypt’s Omar Assar defeated Cedric Meissner 4-1, Dang Qiu defeated Fanbo Meng 4-2, and Ovtcharov dominated Tobias Hippler 4-0.

The Semifinals were match-ups between four Butterfly-sponsored players: Ovtcharov, Qiu, Assar and Jha. Ultimately, the final went to Ovtcharov over Assar 4-3.  Video highlights of a number of key matches throughout the event are shown below.