On March 11, the WTT Singapore Grand Slam celebrated the first day of the tournament. As the last player to appear in the national table tennis today, the super grand slam Ma Long defeated the Portuguese star Freitas, and joined hands with Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, Liu Shiwen, Ku Man, Wang Chuqin, Liang Jingkun, Lin Shidong and other 7 teammates to advance to the round of 32, and the national table tennis won a big victory on the first day of the main competition!
At the Tokyo Olympics, Malone won the men's singles championship for the second time, becoming the olympic five-time champion and standing at the peak of his career. As a 33-year-old veteran, Malone is no easy task to stay in good shape. In this year's Macau Championships, Ma Long partnered Qian Tianyi in the mixed doubles competition and was swept out by Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha 0-3; in singles, Ma Long lost to Wang Chuqin to stop in the quarterfinals.
Coming to the Singapore Grand Slam, Malone's form after systematic training has rebounded, and although he lost a set against Freitas, he still won 3-1.
In the first set, Malone entered the state very quickly, quickly made a 5-0 start, Freitas scored 2 points 2-5 behind, Malone scored 4 more points, widened the gap 9-2, 10-3 won 7 innings points, Freitas chased 2 points, Malone scored another point, still 11-5 ahead; in the second set, Malone made more mistakes, slipped in form, lost points consecutively, Freitas led 7-3, pulled back a set at 11-5; in the second set, Malone made more mistakes, slipped down, and lost points consecutively, Freitas led 7-3, pulling back a set at 11-5;
In the third set, Malone restarted, starting 4-1, winning strongly at 11-3, and leading again with a total score of 2-1; in the fourth set, Malone led 4-2, 7-4, Freitas was forced to call a timeout, do the final struggle, Malone came back without giving the opponent another chance, and finally locked in the victory 11-5.
In another match, Africa's brother Aruna fought in five sets to win 3-2 against South Korea's Lee Sang-so. In the next match, Malone will face Aruna, Wang Chuqin will face Pitcheford, Lin Shidong will face Dako, and Liang Jingkun will play Gardos.
Attached are the results of 8 matches on the first day of national table tennis:
Women's Singles - Liu Shiwen 3-0 Tian Zhixi, Sun Yingsha 3-0 Sabine Winter, Wang Manyu 3-0 Liu Xinyin, Ku Man 3-1 Feng Tianwei
Men's Singles - Ma Long 3-1 Freitas, Wang Chuqin 3-0 Matthias Fark, Liang Jingkun 3-1 Simon Goetz, Lin Shidong 3-0 Ibrahim Dior