On March 7, 2022, Beijing time, WTT Singapore Grand Slam began to compete for the qualification tournament, the first round of the men's singles qualification round, the national table tennis player Xiang Peng defeated the opponent 3-2, and successfully advanced to the second round. The South Korean table tennis team was unfavorable, and Lee Shiwen and Cho Sung-min, who had appeared successively, all lost and suffered a heavy blow.
Grand Slam tournaments are the highest level of WTT professional competitions, except for a few players who are absent due to injury, all the top stars in table tennis participate. On the national table tennis side, there are not only ma long, Xu Xin, Liu Shiwen, Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu and other main players, but also the second echelon players such as He Zhuojia and Lin Shidong. Youngsters Kuman and Xiang Peng won the qualifying wild card, which was a valuable learning opportunity.
Just before the start of the competition, the Chinese Table Tennis Association announced the selection method for Asian Games participants, and the singles champion of the Grand Slam can directly pass through the Asian Games, which is also an incentive for all participating players. To put it simply, this competition has a lot of prize money, a lot of points, and also prepared a direct quota for the Asian Games, which is bound to motivate the players to give it a go.
The first national table tennis debut is Xiang Peng, the young player Xiang Peng just participated in the Muscat station, won the men's doubles championship, men's singles also reached the final four, the progress is obvious. However, back-to-back competitions were a greater test for him, and facing Alamyan, Xiang Peng was dragged into the decider by his opponents with a 2-0 lead. In the last moment, the opponent once achieved a relatively large lead, but Xiang Peng fought straight after it, won the decider 11-8 thrillingly, and killed the opponent 3-2 with a big score, successfully advancing to the next round.
At the same time, South Korean players also started a Grand Slam journey, but they were hit on the first match day. In the first round of the women's singles qualifier, Lee Shi-win, who was cultivated by the South Korean team, was eliminated by an Indian player, the score was 1-3, and the fourth set also lost a 2-11, which was a big surprise. In the first round of the men's singles qualifier, Zhao Chengmin lost 1-3 to a German player and suffered a round of qualifying.
The South Korean team wants to cultivate young players, but several young players are not very competitive, and such a good opportunity to participate in the competition has encountered a qualifying round trip, and the coach is also helpless. Next, on the second matchday of the qualifiers, there are also national table tennis players, that is, Kuman, she just won the women's singles and women's doubles championships in Muscat, morale is high, the first round of the qualification against the French players, I believe she can successfully qualify!