Rip Energy • 2021 Houston World Table Tennis Championships Warm-up Tournament ended the men's singles 1/8 final and 1/4 finals today, Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, Xu Chenhao defeated their opponents to advance to the semifinals, and Xu Xin lost to Xue Fei in the 1/4 finals, who will face Ma Long in the semifinals.
In the first 1/8 final, Xu Xin defeated Liang Yufeng in 4 straight sets and successfully advanced, while Xue Fei, who was also in the 1/4 zone, took a lot of trouble, defeating Xiang Peng 4-2. In the evening, Xu Xin and Xue Fei launched a "straight board dialogue", the first two sets of the two sides fought 1-1 draw, the third set became a turning point of the game, Xue Fei took the lead in getting the set point after being overtaken by Xu Xin, and then the two sides went through several tug-of-war, Xue Fei won 16:14, with this momentum, he went to the next city at 11:6, leading 3-1 with a big score. In the fifth set, Xu Xin pulled back Yicheng after a brief adjustment, and then Xue Fei won an 8:4 lead in the sixth set, but in the good situation, Xu Xin frantically chased the score and achieved a turnaround at 11:9, and the two sides played 3-3. In the decider, Xue Fei took the lead at the beginning and maintained the advantage to the end, locking in the victory at 11:5.
After winning this hard-won victory, Xue Fei attributed it to his mentality: "I didn't have any baggage before playing, and to play was to let go and fight." However, it was also because of the mentality that Xue Fei still had some situations in the sixth set, to which he explained: "At that time, there were some changes in the opponent's tactics, resulting in a fluctuation in his mentality. Fortunately, when it came to the decider, he did not think too much about the victory and defeat, re-mobilized and then fought, and finally won the game. In this game, Xue Fei also felt a lot from the "big brother": "I think there are many points worth learning about Brother Xin, including his serve and serve, the changes in the first three boards of the traditional straight board and the ability of the forehand, all of which are worth learning." Looking forward to the semi-final against Ma Long, Xue Fei said firmly: "I will still take the initiative to fight." ”
Malone, who staged a bitter battle yesterday, did not encounter too many twists and turns in today's two games, and after defeating Quan Kaiyuan 4-1 in the 1/8 final, he defeated Xu Haidong in the 1/4 final four straight sets. Malone is also satisfied with his own play today: "Today I feel good on my hands, the landing point is well controlled, I didn't give the opponent a force or was hit into the opponent's technical and tactical routine, and the first three boards are also more active." In the evening game with Xu Haidong, Ma Long scored after putting a multi-board high ball, talking about this topic, Ma Long said: "That ball is actually not handled well on his first three boards, resulting in being more passive, but he does not want to easily lose every point when passive, and under such a large field, the high ball is actually not very good to play." Under the high-density competition, many fans are also very concerned about Malone's physical condition, and Malone responded: "So far, his physical state is still relatively normal. ”
Another semi-final will be played between Xu Chenhao and Fan Zhendong. In today's game, Xu Chenhao defeated Yan Sheng and Yu Heyi consecutively, and Fan Zhendong defeated Zhou Kai 4-1, and then defeated youngster Lin Shidong by the same score in the quarterfinals. In a battle with Lin Shidong, the two sides drew 1-1 in the first two sets, after which Fan Zhendong gradually controlled the situation and finally went down to three cities. Summing up the game, Fan Zhendong said: "At first, his unnecessary mistakes were a bit much, the first two sets were backward in the middle and then bit back a little bit, and the quality of his first came up was still quite high." After playing 1-1, some changes were made in the serve and serve, and the back was slightly better. Facing the next semi-finals, Fan Zhendong said: "This competition is a knockout round, I think my investment and focus are OK as a whole, and I hope to find a real feeling of competition before the World Table Tennis Championships through the competition." ”
Today's Results:
Tomorrow's Schedule: