(by Steve Hopkins)

The Fourth Dusseldorf Masters event was held this week in Germany.  This week’s winner, German team veteran, Bastian Steger.

The Dusseldorf Masters events have been held in consecutive weeks of June.  The first Dusseldorf Masters event was won by Timo Boll – with highlights including Dang Qiu upsetting Dimitrij Ovtcharov early, and Steffen Mengel advancing to the Final.  Kanak Jha arrived in Germany in time to play in the Second Masters event.  Jha played both Qiu and Mengel, defeating Mengel and losing to Qiu.  Qiu ultimately faced Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the Final, and Ovtcharov won.  The third Dusseldorf Masters went to Ovtcharov with a 4-1 win over Egypt’s Omar Assar – Ovtcharov’s second title of the series.

In this installment of the event, Jha was the top ranked player, but he fell to Steger in the Quarterfinals 4-1.  Steger followed up that win with a second upset win in the Semis (over Benedikt Duda) and then with a third upset win in the Finals (over Dang Qiu).  Qiu and Mengel both played well again – each reaching the Semifinals.  Qiu may be the biggest surprise of the tournament series – placing 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, and 2nd in the four events.  Ovtcharov’s two wins give him a total of 110 points, but Qiu’s results across all four events have him in second place overall with a total of 100 points.

The Men are off next week.  The Ladies Masters will begin on July 4th.

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