The national table tennis veteran beat Wang Yidi! Liu Shiwen was interviewed with tears, saying that the game was played less than once. The 2022 WTT Macau Championships carried out a focus battle, the national table tennis veteran Liu Shiwen against Wang Yidi, because Liu Shiwen has not played the game for more than three months, coupled with the recent systematic training, and Wang Yidi's recent results are not bad, so before the game, the outside world is generally optimistic about Wang Yidi winning, but after the start of the game, the two fell into a battle.
In the first set, Liu Shiwen took the lead in the state, leading 6-1, after which Liu Shiwen maintained the lead, winning the first set 11-6. In the second set, Liu Shiwen made some mistakes, Wang Yidi seized the opportunity to take the lead in the set point 10-4, but Liu Shiwen played very tenaciously, and scored 6 consecutive points to chase the score to a 10-10 draw, and then Wang Yidi scored 2 consecutive points to win a set back at 12-10. In the third set, the two launched a fierce competition, the score once alternated, when the score battle into 7-7 peacetime, Liu Shiwen scored 3 consecutive points, 10-7 to get the set point, and then Wang Yidi caught up with the score, the key moment, Liu Shiwen grabbed the attack, to 13-11 to win another set. In the fourth set, the competition between the two has entered a white-hot, the score has been drawn many times, when the score is 12-12, Liu Shiwen scored 2 consecutive points to lock up the victory 14-12, thus defeating Wang Yidi with a total score of 3-1 and advancing to the women's singles round of 8.
After the game, Liu Shiwen revealed her true feelings in an interview, with tears in her eyes, saying that she was very honored to participate in WTT events as a veteran, and what she could do as an athlete was to play every goal with all her strength and enjoy the feeling of winning. Talking about playing with young players, Liu Shiwen said that she is holding a fighting mentality, so the pressure will be less, and playing with young players is learning, hoping that she can maintain her state. In addition, Liu Shiwen also said that at her age, she will cherish the opportunity to play the game, because once she plays less, she hopes that she can maintain a good competitive state, can extend her own state, as long as she can still compete with the opponent, she will stand on the field. For the future, Liu Shiwen said that she will try to do some other things, gradually transform, and hope to promote table tennis.
From Liu Shiwen's statement, it is not difficult to see that she cherishes the opportunity to play, after all, she is already a veteran, and will only be at a disadvantage when competing with young players, but Liu Shiwen still hopes to be able to engage in table tennis-related work in the future and continue to promote table tennis, which is probably to imply that she is not far from retirement.