On the evening of March 5, Beijing time, the WTT (World Major League Table Tennis) regular challenge race Muscat ended in Muscat, the capital of Oman. The Chinese team won five crowns without exhausting the main force, among which the women's team's 18-year-old "Little Flower" Ku man won the women's singles and women's doubles championships.
The competition began on the 27th Beijing time, and it is also the first time that the Chinese table tennis team will participate in international competitions in 2022. The team sent a huge lineup of 28 players, but wang Yidi, who participated in the core of last year's Tokyo Olympics, and Wang Yidi, who has risen to fifth place in the women's team's world ranking, did not register. Of all the players, 18 started with the singles qualifiers.
Zhang Rui (left) and Ku Man take a selfie after winning the championship
However, it is the open competition that gives the national table tennis players more opportunities, and many players who have played from the qualification tournament have performed well. On the 5th, in the women's doubles final that took the lead, qualifiers Zhang Rui/ Kuman defeated the Indian duo of Sutilta / Ashika 3-1 to win the championship. The two performed strongly in this match, sweeping all the way through the level, until the semi-final encountered a strong pair of friends Chen Xingtong / Qian Tianyi only lost a set and advanced 3-1. In the final, the two were tied by their opponents in the first set, and fell behind 1-8 in the third set. At this time, the Chinese combination let go of its hands and feet and finally won the victory.
Later in the women's singles final, Kuman played against teammate Fan Siqi. With only 287th and 143rd places in the world rankings, the two started from the qualifiers but met the final with outstanding performances, and had only lost two sets in the previous seven games. During the promotion process, Fan Siqi defeated Puerto Rican player Diaz, the top seed in the women's singles and no. 11 in the world, and Ku man eliminated Liu Weishan, Qian Tianyi and chen Xing, who was ranked 13th in the world, and his teammates. In the final, Kuman won the double title after a 4-1 draw.
Lin Shidong (left) and Xiang Peng take a selfie after winning the championship
Lin Shidong/Xiang Peng, who won the men's doubles championship, are also a pair of qualifiers. Lin Shidong, who will turn 17 next month, and Xiang Peng, an 18-year-old former youth champion in the men's doubles, have previously partnered in the Table Tennis Super League, and this is the first time the two have joined hands to participate in an international competition. In order to prepare for the battle, the two often practice together during closed training. Coming to Muscat, the two were in good shape, from the qualifiers all the way to the final, and staged a "big reversal" in the quarterfinals, eliminating the top seeds Wang Chuqin / Liang Jingkun. In the final on the 5th, facing the Chinese Taipei combination Zhuang Zhiyuan / Peng Wangwei, the two were full of momentum and fell straight into three sets to win the championship. After the game, the two young men expressed their hope that they would cooperate more in the future and strive to get more good results.
The men's singles final staged a strong dialogue, and the world's fifth-ranked top seed Liang Jingkun, with a powerful arc ball, defeated the world's 10th-ranked No. 2 seed Lin Gaoyuan 4-1 to win his third WTT race championship. The Chinese men's team sent some of the main players to participate in this time, covering the top 4 of the men's singles. In the semi-finals on the 4th, Liang Jingkun narrowly defeated the world's 106th rookie Xiang Peng 4-3 after falling behind three times, and Lin Gaoyuan beat Liu Dingshuo 4-1.
Wang Chuqin (left) and Chen Xingtong won the championship in mixed doubles
In addition, in the mixed doubles final held on the 4th Beijing time, Wang Chuqin/ Chen Xingtong swept the Indian combination of Sakar / Kamas in only 19 minutes. Wang Chuqin and Chen Xingtong have worked together to win the 2014 World Youth Championships and the runner-up of the 2015 World Youth Championships, this time the two worked together to eliminate strong opponents such as Liang Jingkun/Kuman, and dominated the adult arena for the first time.
Images of this article are courtesy of WTT