The German second round duel at the table tennis WTT tournament in Frankfurt between Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Ruwen Filus has collapsed.
The German national player Ruwen Filus (TTC Fulda-Maberzell) lost 2:3 against the Swede Mattias Falck on Monday after a 2-1 set lead.
The 32-year-old Falck will now face the eighth in the world rankings and therefore the best-placed German player, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, on Wednesday.
Strong opponent for Ovtcharov
The Swede plays in the Bundesliga for Werder Bremen and has enjoyed great international success over the past four years: in 2019 he won World Cup silver in singles and in 2021 he became world champion in doubles.
At the European Team Championships in Malmö in September he won the final against Germany with the Swedish team.
Dang Qiu in the round of 16
European table tennis champion Dang Qiu has reached the round of 16 at the WTT Champions tournament in Frankfurt am Main. The 27-year-old from Borussia Düsseldorf won his opening match against Darko Jorgic in 3-0 sets on Monday evening. The 25-year-old Slovenian is ranked eleventh in the world and plays in the Bundesliga for 1. FC Saarbrücken. Dang Qiu’s next opponent is the 17-year-old Frenchman Felix Lebrun.
Bolt out early
The competition in the new “World Table Tennis” tournament series is the first international table tennis tournament in Germany since the coronavirus pandemic. With prize money of $500,000, it is about twice as high as the last German Open competitions in 2020 in Magdeburg and 2019 in Bremen.
For men, 25 of the top 30 players in the current world rankings are competing in Frankfurt. The German record European champion Timo Boll was eliminated on the first day of the tournament against the South Korean Lee Sang Su.