On 12 March, the WTT Singapore Grand Slam entered the second day of the main tournament. The national table tennis team has 7 singles 1/32 finals and 1 mixed doubles 1/8 final.
The first match was played by Xiang Peng against Denmark's Gross. Xiang Peng was given the opportunity to participate in this tournament as a blank card. However, unlike Lin Shidong, he needs to participate in the qualifiers.
Xiang Peng is a very good young player. He defended his Men's Singles Title at the World Youth Championships in December 2021. Won the men's doubles title at the recent WTT Oman Challenge.
Xiang Peng played three qualifying matches, narrowly defeating Iran's Noshad Alamyan 3-2, Denmark's Linde 3-1 and Slovakia's Pistje 3-0 to advance to the main tournament. Xiang Peng's road to promotion is much more difficult than that of Ku Man.
In the first round of the main match, Xiang Peng faced Denmark's Gross, and he lost 0-3, breaking a big upset. The scores in the three sets were 3:11, 8:11, 10:12.
Gross is not a very strong player, having won the singles runner-up at the European Games, and has no other results, and there is little information about him. Unexpectedly, Xiang Peng would lose 3-0 to his opponent.
It seems that it is not easy for young players to play the senior game. Xiang Peng participated in very few adult competitions. Although he won the men's doubles title of the WTT Oman Challenge with Lin Shidong, it was difficult to achieve good results in singles competitions. This time in the qualifiers, Xiang Peng bumped into the main tournament. This may be the process that young players have to go through. Only by experiencing more and playing more games can we grow and improve our own level.
Compared with Xiang Peng, although Lin Shidong is smaller, he is very mature in playing, dares to fight, and wins many games. Maybe the coaching team has long seen this, preferring to let Lin Shidong, who is much lower in the world ranking, directly participate in the main competition, rather than let the world youth singles champion Xiang Peng directly participate in the main competition, but start from the qualification tournament and let him hone more. I believe that the more games I participate in, the more Xiang Peng's skills will increase.
The next women's singles quarter-32 final was played by Chen Meng against Japanese table tennis player Hitomi Sato. Chen Meng has always been not very accustomed to the way the chipper plays. However, in the face of Hitomi Sato, whose overall strength is average, Chen Meng did not give his opponent a chance, and won 3-0 against his opponent and successfully advanced to the round of 32. The scores in the three sets were 11:8, 11:7, 11:9.
Hitomi Sato made a 3-1 start in the first set, and Chen Menglian's 2 points tied the score. Hitomi Sato also scored two consecutive points to take the lead again 5-3. Chen Meng scored two more points in a row, equalizing the score again. Hitomi Sato hit a lucky shot to take the lead again 6-5. Chen Meng scored three consecutive points to surpass Hitomi Sato 8:6. This is the first time Chen Meng has taken the lead. Unexpectedly, Hitomi Sato played very tenaciously and chased the score to 8 draws. Chen Meng no longer gave his opponent a chance, scoring three consecutive points to win the first set at 11:8.
In the second set, Chen Meng made a 2:0 start and was chased by Hitomi Sato to a 2 draw. The back went into a state of glue, and the two sides hit 5 flat. Chen Mengli scored 4 consecutive points and achieved a large lead. Hitomi Sato called for a pause. Chen Meng retained a four-point advantage to win another set 11-7.
In the third set, at 4:3, Chen Meng scored four consecutive points to widen the point difference to 5 points. Hitomi Sato trailed the score to 9:8 and trailed by only one point. Chen Mengbao won the match point 10:8. Hitomi Sato hit a straight line to save a match point. Chen Meng scored cleverly to win the set 11:9.
In the end, Chen Meng swept Hitomi Sato 3-0 to advance to the women's singles round of 32.
In terms of strength, Chen Meng is definitely stronger than Hitomi Sato, and it makes sense to win the game. It's just that since the Tokyo Olympics, Chen Meng has not achieved decent results. As the double gold king of the Tokyo Olympic Games, Chen Meng, who has long dominated the world number one in women's table tennis, also has to take out the state and win some championships. Otherwise her time would only get farther and farther away.
In other competitions, Germany's Chu Won 3-0 against Egypt's Assar, Germany's Miltheim beat Egypt's Alhodabi 3-1 and South Korea's Ahn Jae-hyun beat Germany's Walter 3-1.
Yoshinori Ito, a sister of Japanese table tennis, appeared. She won 3-1 against German veteran Han Ying, a Chinese cutter. The scores were 11:3, 11:5, 9:11, 11:5 in the fourth inning. Although Han Ying won back a set at 11:9, the gap between the three sets lost was relatively large, which showed that Han Ying was really not Ito's opponent.