Quarter-Finals : Hamburg and Bremer progress
The first day of action at Turnhalle saw two quarter-final matches, as Sportwerk Hamburg and Bremer SC both won on countback to book semi-final matches against top seeds Paderborn and Worms.
SC Karlsruhe 2-2* Sportwerk Hamburg (8-8, 135-152)
#4 : Daniel Friedewald 2-3 Julius Benthin 17-15, 1-11, 1-11, 11-6, 4-11 (66m)
#1 : Curtis Malik 3-0 Yahya Elnawasany 11-4, 11-9, 11-6 (45m)
#2 : Jakub Solnicky 3-2 Karim El Hammamy 11-7, 11-9, 12-14, 7-11, 11-5 (88m)
#3 : Ben Petzoldt 0-3 Valentin Rapp 8-11, 3-11, 5-11 (42m)
Bremer SC 2*-2 Sport Insel Stuttgart (9-6)
#4 : Heiko Schwarzer 3-0 Nils Schwab 12-10, 11-8, 11-8 (34m)
#1 : Patrick Rooney 1-3 Youssef Soliman 4-11, 12-10, 7-11, 2-11 (58m)
#2 : Ibrahim Elkabanni 2-3 Ben Smith 9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 4-11, 7-11 (62m)
#3 : Tim Weber 3-0 Jakob Kanel 11-6, 11-9, 13-11 (37m)
Valentin Rapps it up to give Hamburg victory in the first Quarter-Final
The first quarter-final went the distance as Sportwerk Hamburg – who came third in the Northern Division – overcame Karlsruhe on points countback.
Julius Benthin took the first match in five games, losing the first 15-17 before taking the lead 11-1, 11-1 – a points difference which would prove to be crucial come the end.
Curtis Malik and Jakub Solnicky put Karlsruhe 2-1 ahead with 3-0 and 3-2 wins over Egyptian duo Yayha Elnawasany and Karim El Hammamy.
At 8-5 in games Karlsruhe needed one more game to progress, but at 98-101 in points Hamburg knew that a 3-0 win for Valentin Rapp would secure victory, and so it proved as Rapp in straight games to put Hamburg through to a semi-final with Paderborn.
“For a long time it didn’t look like we would win,” said Sportwerk Hamburg team manager Bart Wijnhoven. “Yahya’s opponent Curtis was simply too strong today, but Julius took a hard-fought victory in the end. When Karim was two games down, I was already very unsure. But he fought back well and won two important games. Valentin then bagged it very confidently.
“I think that both teams deserved to win today. We now have Paderborn in the semi-finals – after last year, when they lost to Diepholz in the semis, Paderborn will be very keen to win the title back. We will definitely not get any presents and will give it our all. We will see what happens.”
Tim takes Bremen through to face the Champions
The second quarter-final also went the distance, with Bremen SC – who finished second in the Southern Division – edging Sport Insel Stuttgart on games countback.
Heiko Schwarzer put Bremer ahead with a 3-0 win, all close games against Nils Schwab though.
Youssef Soliman beat Patrick Rooney 3-1 in the top string match to put Stuttgart level, then Ben Smith came from 1-2 down against Ibrahim Elkabanni to give the third-place finishers the lead.
The scenario for the final match was simple – whoever won would take their team through to the semis. In the end it was the skilful Tim Weber who won it for Bremen, although he had to save four game balls in the third to deny Jakob Kanel.
“We always wanted to at least reach the semi-finals,” said Bremen team manager Wilhelm Eickworth, “we’ve worked for that all season.
“Now we’re up against the German team champions from Worms. We’ll see what happens there and then we’ll see what happens next!”
Semi-finals start at 14.00 tomorrow …
