(by Steve Hopkins)
Japanese defender, Yuto Muramatsu, was the surprise winner at the WTT Feeder Series event in Dusseldorf. China’s Chen Yuanyu entered as the top seed, but he fell in the Round of 16 to Korea’s Kim Minhyeok. The second seed was Germany’s Ricardo Walther, and he lost to 19 year old German Wim Verdonschot 3-2 in the second round. Another 19 year old German, Andre Bertlesmeier defeated Wim, advancing all the way to the Semifinals before losing to Samuel Kulczycki.
The final four were Kim Minhyeok versus Yuto Muramatsu and Samuel Kulczycki versus Andre Bertlesmeier. In an event with fourteen players in the World’s Top 100 (5 in the top 50), the highest ranked player to reach the Final Four was Muramatsu (World No. 116). Instead of a showcase of the top players, this was a series of statements by lesser known players with Muramatsu making the biggest of those statements. Muramatsu defeated Castro, had a tight win over Kay Stumper, then logged dominant wins over Park Ganghyeon, Yuta Tanaka, and Kim Minhyeok before taking out Poland’s Samuel Kulczycki in the Final.
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