On the evening of the 20th, the first grand slam tournament of the two-week WTT (World Table Tennis Professional League) ended in Singapore. In the men's and women's singles finals, Chen Meng and Fan Zhendong defeated their teammates to reach the top. According to the selection method of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, the two also won the singles and team qualifications for this year's Hangzhou Asian Games. The Chinese team also won five crowns in the first international event in which the main force played in this year, and it is still unstoppable.
Chen Meng roared in celebration after scoring the key points. Courtesy of WTT
As one of the highest level of the "Four Slams" in the WTT series, this tournament attracted almost all the best players to participate, and the Chinese team also sent 16 players, including all the main players, to participate in the singles competition. Among them, the women's team performed very strongly, after the World Table Tennis Championships last November, it once again won the top 4 and locked in the championship early. In the final, Chen Meng beat Xinke World Championship champion Wang Manyu 4-3, revenge for the defeat in the semi-finals of the World Table Tennis Championships. The latter was able to keep the suspense to the end in the case of a big score of 1-3 and a 4-9 fall behind in the decider, and its strength and resilience did not live up to the world championship title.
In the women's singles semifinals, the Chinese team also staged two seven-game battles. The two defeated players, whether it is the Olympic singles runner-up Sun Yingsha, who has just changed the head coach, or Wang Yidi, who has a strong impact on the main layer in the new cycle, the progress is visible to the naked eye. At the same time, Liu Shiwen, a veteran of the long-sparse battle front, Chen Xingtong of the "Mesozoic Generation", He Zhuojia, a rookie, and Ku Man, an 18-year-old young general, were all defeated in the "civil war", which fully demonstrated the strength of Chinese women's table tennis.
The men's singles final was also a pinnacle match between the champion of the Xinke World Table Tennis Championships and the champion of the Tokyo Olympic Games, and Fan Zhendong and Ma Long lived up to expectations and successfully met. In the final, Fan Zhendong was chased by Ma Long for three consecutive sets after taking the lead in the opening round, but he did not collapse and eventually won 4-3. Ma Long is also not old, showing a good level of competition in this game. In addition, as a key player in the Paris Olympic cycle, Wang Chuqin and Liang Jingkun also have stable performances, and lian Kewai association is a good player. Although both eventually lost to Malone, they also created different degrees of difficulties for the "Grand Slam" winners.
Fan Zhendong took a selfie after winning the championship. Image source: WTT official Weibo
The other four Chinese men's table tennis players were eliminated in the "foreign war", including not only the fledgling young players Xiang Peng and Lin Shidong, but also the Olympic champion Xu Xin and Lin Gaoyuan, who has been in poor form for the past two years. Xu Xin, who returned to participate in the third round, lost 2-3 to Germany's Francesca, and after the game, the 32-year-old veteran admitted that he was not in good shape and felt a little powerless. And lin gaoyuan, who was in the year of playing, still did not come out of the trough, and was swept out of the first round by South Korea's Lin Zhongxun, who ranked 59th in the world, and after the game, he admitted that he was underestimating the situation on the field and made too many mistakes, "It is not how beautiful the opponent plays, it is his own problem." ”
In addition, in the three doubles events, the Chinese team only sent a pair of combinations focused on the Paris Olympic cycle, and finally won all three crowns. In the mixed doubles competition that ended first, last year's World Table Tennis Champion Wang Chuqin / Sun Yingsha had no suspense, laying confidence for more good results in the future. Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin, who missed the final four at last year's World Championships, dominated the men's doubles arena and won the high-level event championship for the first time. In the women's doubles competition, two-time World Champion Sun Yingsha / Wang Manyu reached the top strongly, which is the strongest combination in today's table tennis world.