(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)

Who’s the top ranked player in Germany?  After winning the WTT Contender Skopje in North Macedonia, Benedikt Duda is likely going to be the top ranked German player.  As of today, the top German is Dang Qiu at 1780, and Duda trails in the Rankings by 260 points.  However, Duda received 400 points with his win today, enough to jump five spots in the rankings, overtaking both Dang Qiu and Patrick Franziska and making Benedikt Duda Germany’s top ranked player.

In Skopje, Duda entered as the second seed and he was dominant.  Duda defeated Chang Yu-An, Kristian Karlsson, Yukiya Uda, and Tomislav Pucar on his way to the Final.  The main story of the other half of the draw was the young Chinese player, Wen Ruibo.  At 18, Ruibo seems destined to make a run toward the World Top 25.  In this tournament, Ruibo’s four matches included 3-0 wins over both Darko Jorgic and Thibault Poret.  And like, Duda, the ranking points awarded to Ruiba are going to launch him another 10-15 spots getting him up to No. 35.

In the Final, Ruibo struck first winning the first game, and then took the lead again in winning the third.  However, the consistent play of Duda won out – as Duda narrowly won the fourth game and then eventually dominated both the fifth and sixth to secure the victory.

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