On January 10, 2023, Beijing time, the Asian qualifiers of the Durban World Table Tennis Championships broke out three big upsets. In the women's singles, world No. 21 Chen Siyu was reversed by a lower-ranking player after leading 3-1. In the men's singles competition, Guoping swallowed the first defeat, and Ma Long lost 3-4 to Maharu Yoshimura, which was indeed a bit unexpected. In addition, South Korea's Lee Sang-so lost 4-2 to Iran's Alamian, the fourth defeat swallowed by South Korea in the singles tournament on this matchday.
In the women's singles competition, all 5 main players of National Table Tennis won, Wang Manyu, Wang Yidi and Chen Xingtong defeated South Korea's Cui Xiaozhu, Xu Xiaoyuan and Li Shiwen respectively, showing strong overall strength. Only one match in the women's singles tiebreaker broke out, with world No. 21 Chen Siyu leading 3-1 at one point, but she lost three consecutive games and was overturned by world No. 72 India's Akura.
In the men's singles competition, the first big upset turned out to be made by national table tennis Grand Slam winner Ma Long, who fought hard for 7 games, lost 2 consecutive games with a 3-2 lead, and lost 3-4 to Japan's Maharu Yoshimura, who rarely participated in international competitions in these two seasons, but defeated Ma Long, which is indeed a big upset. Interestingly, Ma Long's off-court guidance is precisely the new coach of the men's team, Wang Hao, and many fans said that Wang Hao is still relatively immature, and Qin Zhijian is more reassuring. After Ma Long lost, many fans expressed their missed Qin Zhijian, but since Guoping chose Wang Hao, he should be given more time, and I believe that Ma Long will successfully complete the task in the future qualifying matches.
In addition, the South Korean team lost consecutive battles in the singles arena, in addition to Choi Hyo-joo, Seo Hyo-won, Lee Shiwen and other 3 women's singles players lost to the national table tennis player, the men's singles Lee Sang-so lost 2-4 to Iran's Alamien, which is also a big upset, because Lee Sang-so is ranked 25th in the world, and Iran's Alamian is ranked 199th in the world, from the ranking point of view, the two are not on the same level, but Lee Sang-so accidentally lost, and the South Korean team suffered its fourth defeat in the singles arena.
Although Guoping suffered a defeat, the overall performance was still excellent, the five main players of the women's singles won collectively, only Wang Manyu lost a set, Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng, Wang Yidi, Chen Xingtong all won 4-0. In the men's singles, Fan Zhendong won 4-0, Wang Chuqin won 4-1, and Liang Jingkun won three consecutive games after falling behind 1-2 to defeat He Junjie 4-2. Xiang Peng, who came on the scene, blasted 11-1 in a single set to win 4-1 against Iran's Khodayi.
Looking at the Asian table tennis scene, our main opponents are still the Japanese team and the Korean team, Japan's Mimato Ito, Hina Hayada, Miu Hirano, Miyu Kihara, Miyu Nagasaki, Tomokazu Changmoto, Maharu Yoshimura, Daden Shinozuka successfully passed the test, and Kawareki lost 0-4 to South Korea's Zhang Yuzhen. South Korea's Zhang Yuzhen, Lin Jongxun, Tian Zhixi, and Shin Yubin successfully won the decisive round and won the World Table Tennis Championships spot!