Newly crowned Men’s World Cup Champion Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER) has won his fourth ITTF World Tour title of the year in dramatic fashion at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Platinum German Open today, 12 November 2017, in Magdeburg, Germany.
The second seeded Ovtcharov had made his way to the final after sensationally defeating world number two Fan Zhendong in front of the 4,700 sold-out crowd in the semifinals, to set up an all-German final with Timo Boll (GER) who had a 4-0 win over Korea Republic’s Lee Sangsu.
In the rematch of their epic encounters at the 2017 China Open and the Liebherr 2017 ITTF Men’s World Cup Finals, the two German heroes faced each other in an enthralling seven-game clash.
The match saw a tight chase between both players and it was eventually Ovtcharov who repeated his success against Boll 4-3 (9-11, 11-5, 11-9, 6-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-6) to claim his career third German Open (2012, 2014 & 2017), and fourth World Tour title of the year (Indian Open, China Open, Bulgaria Open & German Open).
“Every time against Timo it gets tougher and tougher, I feel every match is basically on the knife’s edge in the last game. I’m aiming to become world number one in the ranking, so I have a strong will to win the tournament,” shared the 28-year-old after his victory. “Timo is my good friend, my idol, I practiced with him so much in my whole career, I think without him I wouldn’t have come so far as I’m here and I’m grateful for that.”
The Chinese men’s team have had one of their weakest event in years as they were knocked out earlier in the tournament, showing a shift in power at the top of the men’s game.
In an all-Chinese Women’s Singles Final, China’s Chen Meng had to face world number One ZHU Yuling (CHN) to fight for a third World Tour Platinum title of 2017. Fresh from her Women’s World Cup victory in Markham, Canada, ZHU raced to a 3-1 lead to dominate the match, but Chen was determined to bag the title. CHEN fought her way back into the game and eventually pulled off an amazing comeback to win 4-3 (9-11, 8-11, 13-11, 9-11, 13-11, 11-9, 11-4) to achieve her goal.
Taking her first German Open title, Chen stated “I’m very happy to be able to win the title at German Open. This match was very tight, there’s only a 2-point difference for many of the games, so I think both of us played our level. When I was trailing 1-3 behind, I did not give up and kept thinking of solutions on the court.”
Japanese pair Miu Hirano and Hina Hayata took home the Women’s Doubles title on their first doubles attempt, defeating Chinese Taipei duo Chen Szu-Yu and Cheng I-Ching 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-9).
Korea Republic claimed the last trophy available in Magdeburg, overcoming Japanese teenagers Tomokazu Harimoto and Yuto Kizukuri 3-2 (8-11, 3-11, 11-5, 16-14, 11-6) in the Men’s Doubles Final.
The 2017 German Open is the final Platinum event of the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour which features 12 events across the world in 2017 plus a World Tour Grand Finals, which only the top 16 male and female players, as well as the top 8 Men’s & Women’s Doubles pairs from the 12 World Tour events qualify for.
With the conclusion of the German Open, top stars now head to Stockholm for the 2017 Swedish Open, which is the final chance for them to earn valuable World Tour ranking points to qualify for the US$1,000,000 World Tour Grand Finals in Astana, Kazakhstan from 14-17 December 2017.
(Source:ITTF)