In the table tennis Asian Cup, there were many seven-game battles on the first matchday, which can also show from one side that even if there may be a large gap in the ranking between players, the competition on the field depends not only on hard strength, but also on the live performance and state transfer in the game. And the players also need to have a process of adapting to the local venues in Thailand. It is worth mentioning that not long ago, the new main player of Japanese women's table tennis who performed well in many consecutive world competitions, Hina Hayada, who returned from injury this tournament and came to the Asian Cup, although the first round was challenged by Singapore's Zeng Jian, and the two sides also played seven games to win or lose, but Hina Hayata still played her world-class demeanor in the seventh game, and showed a strong desire to win, eliminating Zeng Jian with a total score of 4-3 to lock a place in the quarterfinals of women's singles. The scores of the seven sets were: 12-10, 8-11, 11-4, 9-11, 12-10, 7-11 and 11-3.
Coincidentally, Chen Xingtong, the national table tennis star in the other half of the region, faced India's Batra, who was ranked outside the world top 100, and also fought seven games, and was also strongly challenged by the other party. However, compared to Hina Hayada's tenacity, it seems that Chen Xingtong played a little relatively conservatively in this battle, and at the same time lacked initiative. Even always by Batra with rhythm, the entire score, except for the first game to win first, but also 4-7 behind to achieve an 11-9 comeback, most of the following time has been chasing points after the big score is 1-2 by the opponent. Unfortunately, this chasing did not allow Chen Xingtong to take any advantage, even if she chased the score to a 3-3 draw, and once forced the score to 9-10 in the seventh game, she still unfortunately lost, losing 3-4 and not advancing to the next round. As the No. 4 seed all season and also the No. 7 player in the world, stopping directly in the first round of the Asian arena is indeed a big upset in this tournament. The scores of the seven sets were: 11-8, 9-11, 6-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-8, 9-11.
Compared with the performance of Chen Xingtong and Hina Hayata in the first round, in fact, Hina Hayata is also in poor form, just recovering from injury, and needs a long adjustment time, but her momentum on the court has been very good, which to a certain extent, makes up for her poor form, and allows her to always dominate the situation, play until the seventh game, and at the same time be proactive at the beginning, and win the tiebreaker by a landslide. On the other hand, Chen Xingtong, in the tiebreaker, the opening game was 0-4 behind, even if the back continued to chase points, once had a chance to win the game, but we can obviously see that Chen Xingtong played too carefully, it seems that her attack seems to be aiming, there is always a mentality of wanting to exert strength and want to be conservative to prevent mistakes in sending points, and this kind of not firm enough shot, but let her take the initiative to send points many times. In particular, the last 2 key points of the final tiebreaker were all points sent by Chen Xingtong with his own mistakes, allowing Batra to successfully win the whole game.
In general, Chen Xingtong's upset defeat is still his lack of initiative on the field, coupled with insufficient investment, and the whole person is not excited enough to play, and lacks a little initiative to fight and must win in the backward situation. Her defense-oriented style of play also deprived her of the opportunity to solve the fight in the first six innings. And Hina Hayata played a tough game while both her physical condition and competitive condition were still recovering, which is worth learning from. Let's look forward to the only remaining female national table tennis player, Wang Yidi will have a better performance in the following matches, and can continue to move forward while fighting alone, and finally lock the championship, let us cheer for Wang Yidi.