At the WTT Singapore Grand Slam Tournament, on the evening of March 19, a men's singles semi-final match was played between world number one Fan Zhendong and Japan's Yukiya Utada.
Fan Zhendong is very familiar to everyone, he won the men's singles championship at the Houston World Table Tennis Championships last year, is currently the world's number one player, before, Fan Zhendong and Utah Yukiya have never played, which is also the first time the two have played.
Born in 2001, Yukiya Utada is a year younger than Wang Chuqin and has won the men's singles championship at the All Japan Championships, but due to being suppressed by Zhang Benzhihe before, Yukiya Utada has fewer opportunities to participate in the competition.
With the retirement of Japan's Hayabusa Mizutani, Yukiya Utada has also gained more opportunities to participate, and this Singapore Grand Slam Tournament, Yukiya Utada played well, becoming the only foreign association player to reach the final four.
In the first set, Fan Zhendong quickly entered the state of the game, and took a 5-2 lead shortly after the start, but Utada Yukiya played very tenaciously, once forcing the score closer, but at the critical moment, Fan Zhendong was very decisive, taking the lead in winning the first set with an 11-9 score!
In the second game, the two fought very fiercely at the beginning, and the score was drawn many times, all the way to 4 draws!
Yukiya Utada fought very hard, at the same time, Yukiya Utah's serve was very threatening, and Fan Zhendong was unable to solve the problem of receiving the serve, and Utada Yukiya became more and more courageous, taking an 8-5 lead.
In the end, Fan Zhendong lost the second set 7-11, and Yukiya Utada chased the big score to 1 draw.
In this round, Fan Zhendong's serve was a problem, Utada Yukiya's serve threat was relatively large, coupled with the strength of the fight, which was also the main reason why Fan Zhendong lost this round!
In the third set, Fan Zhendong quickly walked out of the shadow of the second set loss and opened with a 4-1 lead!
Despite Yukiya Utada's desperate efforts to catch up, Fan Zhendong still won another round with a score of 11-7, leading 2-1!
In the fourth set, the competition between the two men was more intense, the score was drawn many times, and in the middle of the game, Fan Zhendong took an 8-6 lead.
But Yukiya Utada played very tenaciously, gradually chasing the score to 8-9. After that, the score of the two alternately rose, from 10 draws to 14 draws!
After 14 draws, Fan Zhendong seized the opportunity and started very decisively, winning another round with a thrilling score of 16-14, leading 3-1!
After losing this round, Utada Yukiya was also slightly frustrated, shaking his head helplessly and smiling bitterly!
However, Yukiya Utada soon launched a fierce fight again in the fifth set, and dared to take the initiative to attack, which also caused Fan Zhendong a lot of trouble.
The score of the two fell into a state of anxiety, and the score fought all the way to 10 draws!
After 11 draws, Yukiya Utada scored consecutive forehand attacks to win back another set with a score of 13-11, and the big score Yukiya Utada fell behind 2-3!
In the sixth set, Yukiya Utada continued her good form in the fifth set! A 5-0 lead was made short of the start!
But Fan Zhendong soon stabilized, and Utada Yukiya took the initiative to fight a standoff, in the multi-shot matchmaking, Fan Zhendong still occupied a certain advantage, and soon, Fan Zhendong scored 7 points to surpass the score!
After a fierce battle, in the end, Fan Zhendong locked in the victory with an 11-9 score!
In the end, Fan Zhendong defeated Yukiya Utada by a score of 4-2, taking the lead in the men's singles final, waiting for the winner between Ma Long and Liang Jingkun, so that the Chinese team had already locked in the championship and runner-up in advance!
After the game, when Fan Zhendong was interviewed, he also showed the style of a big country!
Fan Zhendong said that this is his first match with Yukiya Utada, and the opponent played very well in this competition, creating a lot of trouble for himself, hoping that the fans present will also give applause to Yukiya Utada!