BERLIN, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Veteran Timo Boll is listed as the top seed at the Dusseldorf Masters, a new table tennis tournament series starting on Monday during a period where no international tournaments or national league matches are being played due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tournaments, which will be played almost weekly from June to August, are intended to offer intensive practice matches to German international players, players of Germany's top club Borussia Dusseldorf and those of the training group at the German Table Tennis Center in Dusseldorf.
Apart from Boll, prominent names such as Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Patrick Franziska are also among the participants. The weekly tournaments include four players from the world's top 50 as well as four others from the top 100.
Organized by Borussia Dusseldorf, with the support of the German Table Tennis Association, the tournaments will start on June 1 and 2, and continue into the second week of June as a two-day format. From the third week onwards, matches will be played on three weekdays.
"The Dusseldorf Masters are a great opportunity to play regular competition again after weeks of pure practice. Our players were absolutely thrilled when we presented this idea to them," said Jorg Rosskopf, the head coach of Germany.
The Dusseldorf Masters will be played in a knock-out system with up to 16 participants, and conclude with a final tournament with eight professionals in August.
A round of 16 and one quarterfinal make up Monday's round of matches. The remaining three matches of the second round, as well as the semi-finals and the final, all best of five, will be played on Tuesday. Enditem
