On January 20, Beijing time, the second matchday of the WTT Macau Championship, the championship mixed doubles combination of Liu Shiwen and Xu Xin ushered in the first match, against the young Xu Yingbin and Liu Weishan. This is Xu Xin Liu Shiwen's first appearance in the competition since the Domestic National Games, during which both veterans are on vacation. Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen are still the world's No. 1 partners in the mixed doubles active ranking.
In the first set of the game, Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen quickly entered the state, the first round Xu Xin received the ball but the net, 0-1 behind, but then played a wave of 6-0, directly to achieve a 6-1 lead, and finally Xu Xin Liu Shiwen smoothly won the first set 11-4 easily, leading 1-0.
In the second set, Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen continued the good state of the first set, playing a 7-3 start, but at this time Xu Yingbin and Liu Weishan set off a counterattack, took the initiative to meet the attack of Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen, quickly chased the score to 7-7, and then the two sides fell into a stalemate, continuously improved the quality of the return, returned a 7-2, beat the score to a 10-9 lead, mastered the set point, and finally won 11-9 in the second set, and the big score was 1-1 draw.
Entering the third set, the two sides were deadlocked from the beginning, each scoring with a serve, and Xu Yingbin and Liu Weishan played a 4-2 start. But Liu Shiwen and Xu Xin did not stop the attack, several consecutive rounds of serve to score, Liu Shiwen began to attack the force, Xu Xin a strong forehand twist to score, the score hit 9-6 lead, Xu Xin Liu Shiwen completely occupied the initiative, and finally won the third set 11-9, the big score 2-1 lead.
The fourth set was Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen's match point game, Xu Xin began to stage a magical return ball, always surprised when fighting back, so that Xu Yingbin and Liu Weishan were elusive, and soon the score was beaten to 5-1, Liu Shiwen and Xu Xin led. But at this time, Xu Yingbin and Liu Weishan did not panic, but were more calm, playing 3 high-quality pullbacks in a row, returning a wave of 5-0, and beating the score to 8-6. Unfortunately, Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen finally had a better mentality at the critical moment, and then scored 6 consecutive pull rounds, a wave of 6-0 directly took away the game, 11-8 won the fourth set, the big score 3-1 eliminated Xu Yingbin and Liu Weishan combination, advanced to the mixed doubles top 8.
Before this mixed doubles match, Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen won the first game of their respective singles, Liu Shiwen won 3-1 against the powerful Wang Yidi, showing strength, to know that Wang Yidi is currently ranked 5th in the world, the state is just right, but Liu Shiwen still wins. In contrast, Xu Xin played against young player Zhao Zihao in the singles stage, losing 1 set first, and winning 3 consecutive sets to win 3-1. Both veterans made it to the quarter-finals of singles.
Coupled with the promotion of this mixed doubles to the top 8, Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen are achieving personal 2 consecutive wins, leaving the field for a few months, these two veterans do not have "rusty" body, still have strong strength, there have been rumors that the national table tennis veterans are going to retire, but it turns out that Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen are far from saying goodbye, the young juniors of the national table tennis, to rely on their own performance to grab their own position, do not think that the old will automatically abdicate!
(Lin Xiaoxiang)