No one can accuse Kanak Jha of ducking a challenge. For most of his young yet already brilliant career, the trouble has been finding any. Ranked 30th in the world, the 20-year-old Jha towers over the US men's table tennis landscape. His closest competitor in terms of world ranking is Kai Zhang, ranked a distant #171. Jha has won the last four US men's singles national championships and seems destined to rack up many more. In order to improve, Jha needed to challenge himself against equal or superior players on a consistent basis. Toward this end, Jha has spent the past several years living in Germany, honing his skills in the über-competitive German Bundesliga. As the third-ranked player for TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen, Jha has learned to play a supporting role, in stark contrast to his customary captain's ranking stateside. This year, however, Jha finished the Bundesliga season with a miserable 4-14 record. Jha suffered the ignominy of being benched for the playoffs while world #360 Samuel Kulczycki of Poland usurped his spot in the roster. Unfortunately for Ochsenhausen, the desperate gambit bore no fruit as they were eliminated in the first round by 1. FC Saarbrücken TT. Although 2021 has started on a discordant note for Jha, he remains focused on upping his game. Tomorrow, he will test his powers against a tough field at the fourth installment of the Düsseldorf Masters 2021. The popular tournament series sees world-class players accumulate points, leading to a season-ending playoff and championship, FedEx Cup-style. While Jha is making his Düsseldorf Masters 2021 debut, Week 2 champion Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany will be back to assert his dominance over even numbers in Week 4. Ranked #9 in the world, Ovtcharov is the top seed followed by Jha, Omar Assar of Egypt (#42) and Dang Qiu of Germany (#52). Jha faces another German, world #244 Cedric Meissner, in the opening quarterfinal round. Jha needs as much tough international competition as he can get. In July, he looks to defend his US national championship in Las Vegas right before shipping off to Tokyo for the Olympics. While he is the odds-on favorite in Vegas, he is a long shot in Tokyo. There, as in Germany, the challenge will not be to find a challenge, but rather to pose one.

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