On March 31, the 2022 WTT Doha Star Challenge, women's singles semi-final: Han Ying vs Miyu Kato
Han Ying, a German chipper who will turn 39 next month, just won the women's singles title of "2022 Europe's Round of 16" at the end of last month, becoming the oldest women's singles champion in the tournament. Han Ying's "older and more demon", technology and experience are pure, and has become a representative figure of the world table tennis world's cutting style of play. Unless the opponent has the strength of continuous forehand attack, it is really not easy to win Han Ying.
The 22-year-old Miyu Kato, although she is a second-team member of Japanese table tennis, does not have a big gap with the first-team players, and can often beat some of the top players. Today's match against Han Ying will face great difficulties.
The semi-finals started with a best-of-seven game format, which was a test of fitness, and whoever advanced had to play the final in the evening.
In the first set, Han Ying led 3-1, 5-2.
Han Ying lost the opportunity ball, plus rubbing tennis, Han Ying lost 3 points in a row, and was equalized by the opponent, 5-5 draw. At the same time, it also allowed Kato Tou to find confidence.
In fact, Miyu Kato wanted to score through the attack at the beginning, and as a result, every time she pulled sideways, she finally made a mistake, and now seeing that Han Ying will also make mistakes, seize the opportunity, 7-6, 9-7 to surpass the score.
Han Ying did not dare to relax, and did not hesitate to play against the opponent, scoring 3 points in a row and getting the set point 10-9 first.
Miyu Kato scored three consecutive points to win the first set 12-10.
Han Ying was a little too relaxed, giving her opponent a chance to breathe.
In the second set, Han Ying was affected by the regrettable loss in the previous set, hoping to score quickly, constantly slaming mistakes, and falling behind 0-3.
Miyu Kato should have played more patiently at this time, and continued to open up the point difference step by step, but she was more and more impatient, which was a bit inexplicable, and the result was that she lost 4 points in a row, and Han Ying won the score 4-3 in one fell swoop.
Miyu Kato scored four consecutive points to give a 7-4 lead. Although Han Ying once chased 6-7, Miyu Kato still won the set point 10-7.
Miyu Kato conceded two consecutive goals, so excited that she was overwhelmed, there was only one set point left, but fortunately in the end, she won another round 11-9 without any danger, leading 2:0.
In the third set, Han Ying led 8-1, won the set point 10-3, and pulled back a set 11-4.
Chippers are good at playing "protracted battles" and have full staying power. The next innings is critical, with 3:1 and 2:2 being completely different concepts. After the rapid defeat of this round, Kato Miyu must have cleared his mind, if the next game can not stop the decline, the situation will most likely be reversed.
In the fourth set, Han Ying won the set point 10-1 and won another set 11-2 to chase the big score to a 2:2 draw.
In the fifth set, Han Ying led 1-1, 6-2. The quality of Kato Miyu's forehand attack is not high, and it is easy to be pulled back by Han Ying, and Kato Miyu's own rhythm is completely disrupted. At 3-6, Miyu Kato made a direct serve mistake, and her mentality was close to the brink of collapse.
Han Ying won another set 11-5, and the score was 3:2.
In the sixth set, Miyo Kato fell behind 3-0 and had to ask for a timeout.
Both physical and energetic have been consumed by Miyu Kato, and the suspension has not worked. The slam is too strong, there are too many mistakes; the quality of the slam is not high, and it is easy to be pulled back.
Han Ying led 6-0, 9-1.
After losing 3 points in a row, Han Ying took the initiative to request a suspension. Obviously victory is in sight, hoping to finish the work as soon as possible, the shot is too stiff.
Han Ying scored 2 consecutive points to win the final set 11-4, and won the big score 4:2 to advance to the women's singles final, congratulations.