(by Steve Hopkins, photo by ITTFWorld)
The latest installment of the Dusseldorf Masters event was held this week in Germany. This week’s winner, Germany’s Benedikt Duda.
The Dusseldorf Masters events have been held through June and July – with the men sitting out in last week’s women’s event where Han Ying defeated Sophia Klee in an all-German Team Final. On the Men’s side, the winners have been Timo Boll, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, and Bastian Steger. Another set of quick note on the series – Dang Qiu made Quarterfinals in all four events (and made the Final twice), Stefan Mengel has made deep runs in two of the three events he has entered, and Omar Assar had one great run to a Final and two disappointing appearances. As there are cumulative points across all events, its actually Dang Qiu who is leading the series in total points.
This week, Omar Assar was the top seed and Benedikt Duda was second seed. Both players breezed pretty easily into the Final with 4-1 or 4-2 wins along the way. In the Final, it was Omar Assar that opened up the early lead with 11-8, 12-10, and 11-9 wins to take a commanding 3-0 lead. But Duda won the fourth game easily to get on the board, and the momentum never shifted back. Duda logged four straight wins, 11-4, 11-7, 11-7, and 11-2. Benedikt Duda wins the sixth Dusseldorf Masters.
The next event will be held next weekend (July 17-19).
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