On January 20, the WTT Macau Championships began with a men's singles straight-line showdown, with Olympic champion Xu Xin playing against his brother Zhao Zihao. In the end, Xu Xinbao, who had been in the battle for a long time, did not grow old, reversed the elimination of Zhao Zihao, and advanced to the men's singles top 8. Xu Xin will also partner Liu Shiwen in the mixed doubles competition to compete for the championship!
After participating in the Warm-up Of World Table Tennis Championships last year, the three Olympic champion veterans Ma Long, Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen collectively withdrew from the Houston World Table Tennis Championships and the WTT World Cup on the grounds of active rest. Clear-eyed people can see that the three veterans are creating opportunities for the replacement of the old and new national table tennis, and now the Macao tournament is a commercial event, which is a good opportunity for their collective comeback.
Ma Long's debut in Macau was a mixed doubles match, and his partner Qian Tianyi met the championship favourites Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha in the first round, and lost 0-3, losing without suspense! Liu Shiwen's debut was in the singles arena, Xiao Zao played a heroic role, defeating the world table tennis runner-up and WTT World Cup runner-up Wang Yidi 3-1 to break into the women's singles quarterfinals.
Like Liu Shiwen, Xu Xin's debut was also a singles match, facing Zhao Zihao, who knew the roots, he lost one set and won 3 consecutive sets, staged a big reversal, and defeated the opponent 3-1!
In the first set, Zhao Zihao launched quickly, entered the state quickly, took a 6-3 lead, 10-6 to get 4 innings, Xu Xin chased 2 points 8-10 behind, Zhao Zihao took the key point, 11-8 to take the lead; in the second set, Xu Xin changed the decline, 6-1 started, and won back a set with a strong 11-3;
In the third set, Xu Xin still controlled the initiative of the game, winning 2 consecutive sets 11-8; in the fourth set, Zhao Zihao could not organize an effective counterattack, Xu Xin took advantage of the victory to chase and lock the victory 11-3.
In the finished competition, the men's singles top 8 has now produced 6 promotion places, and the players who have advanced include: Fan Zhendong, Xu Xin, Wang Chuqin, Lin Gaoyuan, Lin Shidong, Xu Yingbin!
In the remaining 2 matches, Ma Long will have a strong dialogue with Liang Jingkun to compete for a promotion place; the young player Xiang Peng will face Sun Wen for another top 8 place.