In the prime time of the evening, we ushered in the Doha Star Challenge men's and women's singles eight-in-four battle. Zhang Rui, the only remaining seedling of the national table tennis team, ushered in his quarter-final opponent, Chen Siyu from Chinese Taipei. Because Chen Siyu has had a good performance in both the World Table Tennis Championships and the Olympic Games, her competition experience and control ability, compared to Zhang Rui, also has its own advantages, so the frontal competition between the two sides is destined to be a strong dialogue, and the victory or defeat of the game will also be full of suspense. Whether the national table tennis women's team can continue to hope for the championship depends on Zhang Rui's performance on the field and whether he can find a way to get rid of it when he encounters difficulties.
In the first game between the two sides, the two did not do too much testing, and the common thinking of the two was to focus on their own strengths. Zhang Rui is the one who highlights the offensive ability of the backhand and the changes in the first three boards and haircuts, while Chen Siyu relies on his strong forehand offensive ability and Zhang Rui to maneuver around. In this competition between the two of them, the score is always tight, but the key point at the end of the game, zhang Rui is more proactive, she also won the first set with an 11-9 score. Take a 1-0 lead. In the second game of the game, Chen Siyu slowly adapted to Zhang Rui's playing style. In this inning, the forehand attack was further strengthened, and the courage to take the lead in the first three boards, and occupy a certain initiative when the two sides formed a stalemate. More critically, Chen Siyu's two-sided transfer of the landing point of play, so that Zhang Rui is obviously a little uncomfortable, from the beginning of the game, Chen Siyu took the lead in the score, 6-3, 10-4, with Zhang Rui's return to the net, Chen Siyu easily won the second set 11-4. The two sides drew 1-1.
The third set of the game, in the second set has found a sense of the game, especially the forehand offensive feeling of Chen Siyu, can be said to be more and more confident, in addition to the beginning of the game she once let Zhang Rui use the serve to grab the first point to get 1 point, after getting the first point of the game through the slash line, Chen Siyu never gave Zhang Rui a chance, and soon pulled the score to 3-1 and 8-2, Zhang Rui in the process of forming a stalemate between the two sides, constantly appeared a variety of their own mistakes. Because of the first three boards, she can not take the lead, even if the first to get started, but also often due to too hasty, continuous mistakes, the attack is too fierce also appeared a variety of unnecessary mistakes to send points, Chen Siyu after achieving an 8-4 score lead, no longer let Zhang Rui score, with Zhang Rui after the return ball to the net, 11-4, Chen Siyu easily won the third set. Thus taking a 2-1 lead in the big scoreline.
The fourth set of the game, for Zhang Rui, has reached the edge of danger, but in this game, she seems to have not been able to find any way to break through. On the contrary, she is still a little impatient, always thinking of fighting with Chen Siyu on the field, but in the process of attacking, the quality of her veneer is difficult to guarantee. Especially in terms of the control of the landing point, it is obvious that Chen Siyu is not old enough. When the two sides were 1-3 and Zhang Rui was 2 points behind, she took the initiative to call a timeout for herself. However, the suspension did not have any effect, but Chen Siyu, like the previous two sets, completely controlled the situation on the field in the second half of the set. The more impatient Zhang Rui is, the more mistakes she makes in the attack, and the faster she fights with her opponent, the more passive she is. As the fourth inning ended, the score was tied at 4-11, as was the second set and the third inning. In this way, Zhang Rui was reversed by Chen Siyu with a 1-3 score (the scores of the two sides in the four sets were: 11-9, 4-11, 4-11, 4-11). Zhang Rui's exit also caused the national table tennis women's team to be wiped out on the field of the Star Challenge. We can only say that these marginal main players of the national table tennis women's team, as well as second-tier players, still owe a little bit of fire to the world's first-class masters. I hope that this full-line exit will allow players to learn more from their opponents and provide experience and confidence to help them participate in other competitions in the future.