On March 23, the Doha leg of the WTT Regular Season Challenge is underway. The singles match has been played to the quarter-finals.
In the women's singles quarterfinals, there was an important match, by the national table tennis player Zhang Rui against the Japanese table tennis player Zhang BenMeihe.
The reason why this match is important is because Zhang Benmeihe is very high-level and may pose a threat to the national table tennis players. Meihe Zhang Ben is the younger sister of Tomokazu Zhang Ben, a japanese male table tennis brother, and although she is only 13 years old, she has already achieved very good results in the youth competition.
In February 2019, at the age of 10, Zhang Benmeihe won the U-13 women's singles championship at the ITTF Junior Tour Sweden. In February 2020, 11-year-old Zhang Benmeihe won the women's singles competition in the 2020 ITTF Czech Junior Tour Youth Group (under 18). In December 2021, Zhang Benmeihe won all gold medals in the women's singles, women's doubles, mixed doubles and team events at the Table Tennis World Youth Championships U15.
The Japanese media is very optimistic about Zhang Benmeihe, calling her a "prodigy" and predicting that her development may surpass that of her brother Zhang Benzhihe.
This year, 13-year-old Zhang Benmeihe began competing in the adult group. This is also a routine operation of japanese table tennis, allowing young players to participate in professional competitions early, practice instead of competitions, and promote growth. The practice of daily table tennis has also played a certain effect. They have produced many high-level young players, and their overall strength has surpassed that of Han Ping-Pong, becoming the second high-level team in the international table tennis world, only lagging behind the national table tennis players.
Zhang Benmeihe participated in the WTT Regular Season Challenge in Doha. Overall it was good.
Cheung won 3-1 against Matrova in the first round and Singaporean veteran Feng Tianwei 3-1 in the second round. Zhang Benmei and Feng Tianwei played fiercely. Zhang Benmeihe played a high level. She won the first set with ease at 11:5. The second and third innings were played very stiffly. Zhang Benmeihe won the second set 13:11, and Feng Tianwei pulled back the first set with the same 13:11. Zhang Benmeihe won the fourth set 11:7 and finally defeated veteran Feng Tianwei to advance to the quarterfinals.
In the women's singles quarterfinals, Zhang Benmei and zhang Rui, a member of the national table tennis team, played against zhang rui. Zhang Rui defeated The Czech Republic's Baraskova 3-1 in the first round and Bolkanova of Austria 3-2 in the second round.
Zhang Rui and Zhang Benmeihe had already played a match at WTT Doha last week. On March 16, in the women's singles quarterfinals, Zhang Benmeihe lost to Zhang Rui 3-4 and missed the quarterfinals. A week later, the two met again, and Zhang Rui played better, defeating Zhang Benmeihe 3-1 to advance to the women's singles final four. In 8 days, Zhang Rui won two consecutive victories over Zhang Benmeihe.
Successive encounters with Zhang Rui have made Zhang Benmeihe have a certain psychological pressure. This time Zhang Benmei and played badly, and there was no confidence in the back. In this game, Zhang Benmeihe's mother served as her sideline coach.
In the first set, Cheung Motomi-ho took an 8-4 lead, scoring two consecutive points at 9:6 to win the first set 11-6. In the second set, Zhang Benmeihe took a 4-3 lead. Zhang Rui began to explode, scoring eight consecutive points to quickly pull back a set at 11:4. In the third set, Zhang Rui made a 6:1 start, and the back play was slightly glued, but Zhang Rui retained the advantage of 5 points to win another set at 11:6. In the fourth set, Zhang Rui made a 4:1 start, and Zhang Benmeihe called a timeout. Her mother told her how to face it, but to no avail. At 5:3, Zhang Rui scored 3 consecutive points, and the point difference reached 5 points. Zhang Benmei and did not have the confidence to recover, Zhang Rui won the set 11:4.
In the end, Zhang Rui defeated Zhang Benmeihe 3-1 and advanced to the women's singles final four. In the semi-finals, Zhang Rui will face another young player from Japan, Miyu Kihara.
Zhang Rui played at a normal level. Why can't Zhang Benmei and Zhang Rui win the fight? Throughout the game, Zhang Benmeihe's basic skills are still very good, the technical movements are very skilled, and the ball is very spinty. Opponents can easily eat her balls. Zhang Rui ate several of Zhang Benmeihe's serves.
However, zhang Benmeihe's shortcomings are also obvious. The first is that the hand strength is too small to hold the ball. She returned the ball to the table many times because the force was too small to hold the ball down. Then there is the lack of patience. Zhang Benmei and playing with the ball are more disadvantageous. As long as you play more cricket, it is basically Zhang Benmei and points lost. Then there are fewer changes and are not good at changing the line. And it is easy to lose confidence when you are behind. Zhang Benmeihe showed a helpless expression many times and shook his head helplessly. His mother couldn't help it when she saw it.
In fact, she is still young, playing too few games and lacking experience. This is normal for a 13-year-old.
We can't think that Zhang Benmei and Zhang Benmei can't do it just because we won her. She has been trained in professional competitions and will definitely strengthen. Therefore, the national table tennis players still have to pay attention to her.