Dang Qiu loses semi-final thriller at WTT Champions Chongqing - Benedikt Duda wins title in Mendoza
Dusseldorf's Dang Qiu left China with a broad chest. At the WTT Champions Chongqing (May 30 to June 3), which is endowed with 800,000 dollars, the European champion put world number one Wang Chuqin in serious trouble in the semi-finals. Just a few hours before the 2:4 semi-final thriller, the world number twelve had eliminated Felix Lebrun (France), ranked fifth in the world, in an impressive comeback in the round of the best eight. Benedikt Duda from Bergneustadt secured his first title win with his victory in the final against Alvaro Robles at the Contender in Argentina, which took place at the same time.
Dang Qiu put China's Wang Chuqin under more pressure than ever before in their previous four duels. In just two matches against the current undisputed number one in the world, the player from Düsseldorf had only stolen one set each time. Today, the fantastic European champion was even 2:1 ahead after three sets and was even close to equalizing the score at 3:3 in the extra time of the sixth set: “It's a shame that I didn't manage the 3:3. A seventh set would certainly have been very interesting. I played well today. Overall, I'm very happy with my performance in the final and the last three sets against Felix Lebrun. It was a good tournament for me.”
Wang Chuqin will now meet his compatriot Fan Zhendong in the final today, Monday. The world champion beat world number six Hugo Calderano (Brazil), who had previously defeated Dimitrij Ovtcharov in five sets in the round of 16.
Benedikt Duda wins his first Contender title in Mendoza
Benedikt Duda is the winner of the WTT Contender in Mendoza (Argentina). The player from Bergneustadt secured his first title win in the fourth-highest tournament category of the organizer World Table Tennis with a 4:3 victory in the final over Spain's Alvaro Robles.
In the biggest individual success of his career to date, Duda was in impressive form throughout the tournament. The 42nd-ranked player in the world won the 80,000-dollar tournament in Mendoza, Argentina, on Sunday evening in a hard-fought seven-set thriller, beating his former colleague from the Bundesliga team TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt 11-6 in the deciding set.
Duda, who was coached in Mendoza by his brother Frederik, the coach of TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt, threw his arms in the air in celebration after converting the match point: “It was a high-class final and a tough match, Alvaro was well prepared for me. I'm simply delighted to have won the title. It's really good for me: I haven't played at my best for almost a year now and I've suffered a bit mentally as a result. I've pulled myself out of that with my victory. It was important that my brother sat on the sidelines and gave me the calm I needed.”
From Monday Contender Zagreb with Dang Qiu and Dima Ovtcharov
The tirelessly rotating WTT carousel in Croatia will start turning as early as today, Monday. Dang Qiu (Düsseldorf) and Dimitrij Ovtcharov, who will be playing for Fulda-Maberzell next season, will be among the German champions competing in Croatia, seeded second and third behind Japan's Tomokzu Harimoto and ahead of Nigeria's Quadri Aruna. Bergneustadt's Benedikt Duda, who will also be at the table in Zagreb from Thursday, will not be taking a breather either.
Source: German Table Tennis Federation e.V.
Featured image above: Dang Qiu and Benedikt Duda (Photo: World Table Tennis)